Several thousand people marched through the centre of Jerusalem yesterday to protest at what they said was a lack of government support in the Jewish state for survivors of the Holocaust.
Among the crowd which gathered at the parliament, the Knesset, were dozens of Holocaust survivors, along with their relatives and many other younger Israelis who had come to show support. They walked, often in silence, to the office of the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, holding up signs that read: "Holocaust survivors are still here" and "Their welfare, our obligation". Some wore a yellow Star of David, the emblem Nazis forced Jews to wear.
A dispute has long been brewing between groups representing Holocaust survivors and the government. In recent weeks the government proposed a special allowance of 83 shekels (£9.50) a month for survivors, provoking widespread anger.
One report yesterday said a new proposal was being prepared to offer a range of monthly allowances, starting at 1,000 shekels, for those who lived under Nazi occupation or were held in concentration camps or ghettos, and a lesser allowance of 500 shekels a month for those classed as "Holocaust refugees", often immigrants from the Soviet Union who did not live under Nazi occupation.
After a wave of immigration from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the number of those living in Israel who had survived the Holocaust rose dramatically. Viktor Ginn, 68, lived under the Nazi regime and came to Israel 17 years ago. Although he receives payments under a German compensation scheme, he receives no allowance from the Israeli government. He has a small pension that he earned while working in Israel but says that many Holocaust survivors are now struggling with poverty.
"There are many I have met who are in a difficult situation. But I don't think giving money is the best solution. Instead we should not have to pay for the basic things - electricity, medical care, that sort of thing. Money you have today and tomorrow it's gone," he said.
Standing with him during the protest was Mikhail Greenburg, 72, who spent four years living in a ghetto in Ukraine. He emigrated to Israel 14 years ago. "I don't think we'll get anything from this government," he said.
"The way these people are being treated is shameful," said Gideon Ben-Israel, 82, a former Labour party MP who is now the head of a large senior citizens' association in Israel. He was born in Palestine and fought in the British army's Jewish Brigade during the second world war. "Many of these people are living in great poverty," he said. "I hope that this march will make a difference, otherwise the government will be in real trouble."
Mr Olmert is due to meet representatives of Holocaust survivors on Wednesday, but he and others in the government have complained that the march was organised for political gain.
Before the rally began, Isaac Herzog, the welfare minister, told Israel Radio: "A march in which survivors will wear prisoners' clothes and yellow patches, all in the name of a financial dispute with the government, is an insult to the collective memory of the Holocaust."