Jewish Agency to distribute money to terror victims

The Agency’s Fund for Victim’s of Terror will disburse financial assistance to individuals and families who, since October, have been affected by a recent escalation in terror attacks.

By SAM SOKOL
Updated: MARCH 10, 2016 00:56
MDA crews evacuate wounded Palestinian from Gaza to Ben-Gurion Airoport for medical evacuation to Turkey. (photo credit: KOBI GIDEON/GPO)
MDA crews evacuate wounded Palestinian from Gaza to Ben-Gurion Airoport for medical evacuation to Turkey.
(photo credit: KOBI GIDEON/GPO)
The Jewish Agency announced on Wednesday that it will distribute one million dollars to more than one hundred victims of the current terrorism wave in Israel, including foreign nationals, in “an expression of Diaspora Jewry’s solidarity with the people of Israel.”
The agency’s Fund for Victims of Terror, in cooperation with the Jewish Federations of North America and Keren Hayesod-UIA, will issue the money to individuals and families who, since October, have been affected by the attacks.
“The support provided by Jewish communities around the world is not only financial in nature. This is an expression of Diaspora Jewry’s solidarity with the people of Israel, which is also manifested by the hundreds of thousands of Jews who visit Israel, the tens of thousands of Jewish young people who participate in Israel experience programs and the record number of Jews who choose to immigrate to Israel – even now,” said Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky.
Each victim or family will receive approximately $6,400 above and beyond an initial, and unrelated, grant of around NIS 4,000 offered to families affected by terrorism, intended to help cover immediate needs after attacks. The agency said that it has provided such assistance around seventy times during the current wave of terrorism.
In February the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced that it had recorded 228 attacks since October, a number which has only risen in the month since.
Tuesday saw three terrorist attacks, including a stabbing spree that killed an American citizen not far from where United States Vice President Joe Biden was meeting with former president Shimon Peres.
“Let me say in no uncertain terms the US condemns these acts and condemns the failure to condemn these acts,” Biden said in Jerusalem on Wednesday.