Retired Supreme Court Justice Dalia Dorner has harsh words for the national government, which seems to be having difficulty finding the funds to compensate victims of the Holocaust as per the recommendations of the Dorner Commission.

Officials have announced the funds are not available, and therefore, the distribution will fall under the 2009 state budget, resulting in a delay of at least eight months as per the scheduled of payment agreed upon earlier.

Dorner lamented the decision announced by the Prime Minister’s Office, calling it the “burial of the commission’s report”. In the past, Dorner criticized the poor handling of the needs of the victims, adding the state has a moral and ethical obligation to make payment now, somehow trying to repent for the harsh treatment for Holocaust victims over the past decades.

Her commission was established in January 2008, and the work was completed in an expeditious fashion, filing the report on 22 June. Payment is supposed to be made to the 43,000 survivors and the recommendations were to be implemented within one month. Dorner finds it hard to understand why the government is having such difficulty finding NIS 262 million to correct the injustices of the past towards today’s elderly population of survivors.

“Why was the commission established,” asks Dorner. “Why did we work expeditiously?” she adds rhetorically, “to permit making payment and correcting the moral and legal obligation due the survivors”.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)