Friday, May 08, 2015
Elder of Ziyon
From Israel's News1:
After labeling settlement products and boycotting Israeli companies, Europe exacerbated its anti-Israeli policy-and this time the decision is particularly problematic.This is sickening - and discriminatory..
The Netherlands decided to cut pensions of survivors living beyond the Green Line. Channel 2 news reporter, Lee Na'im, reported that "D.", a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor from the Netherlands, had recently decided to immigrate to Israel and be with her family. She moved to a neighborhood in the Modi'in area, just beyond the Green Line.
The son of D. says: "Mother immigrated to Israel a few months ago. After seeing what is happening in Europe, she decided she did not want to continue to live there and instead go to Israel."
D. was receiving legal assistance from the Justice Ministry to realize her rights as a Holocaust survivor in Israel. In addition, she receives from the government of Netherlands a 1,100 euro old-age pension and an additional pension she is entitled to because she was a Holocaust survivor.
She updated the Dutch government with her new address and received a surprising response.
The letter sent to her said: "Madam, due to living in the West Bank, an area that we do not have any agreement with, we are obliged to deduct a large percentage of your old age pension."
"It gave my mother such a shock that she just burst into tears," said her son. "She has not slept since. She lost her trust and want to go back out of Israel."
Within a few days D.'s allowance was cut to 740 euros, 35% less than she had received to date.
The official explanation of the Dutch authorities is that any settlement in Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights to be a separate political entity from Israel, with which no Dutch government has political agreements.
The family of D. is trying to fight and change the decision, and in particular find it difficult to understand the directive following a law passed The Dutch government.
Even if you believe that the West Bank is occupied by Israel, this woman's decision to live there was voluntary - which means she wasn't "transferred" in the language of the Geneva Conventions. The intent of the Geneva Conventions was to stop the forced transfer of citizens. It is perfectly legal for an individual to move wherever they want to under international law.
Except nowadays, when international law is twisted against Jews in Israel and only Jews in Israel.
Furthermore, if D. would have moved to towns occupied by Turkey or Morocco or Russia, there is no law on their books that would reduce the pension.
A pension agreement is between a country and its citizens, not between a country and the place that they live.
This law is only meant to punish Jews who don't have the right to live wherever they want, as opposed to everyone else.
(h/t Yenta)
UPDATE: English story here.
