Pensioners go to battle in Israel

This week, the Israeli parliament approved in the first reading a bill increasing the old-age benefit (pension) for one person by 100 shekels ($22 from the current 250), and for a married couple by 75 shekels (by 16 dollars from 454). The increase is insignificant, but this is the first victory for the Gil (Age) pensioners' party in the Knesset. In the parliamentary elections on March 28, Gil, whose average age of members is about 70, surprised everyone. She received seven of the 120 seats in parliament and two ministerial portfolios in the government: the posts of minister of health and affairs of pensioners. Party leader 79-year-old Rafi EITAN answers Vremya Novostei's questions.

— In Russia there is also a Party of Pensioners, but it is not so successful. How did you achieve success?

-- There are more pensioners in Israel. If 50 years ago Israelis aged 65-70 years old made up 4-5% of the population, today it is 13-14%. Of the country's six million residents, approximately 750 thousand people are pensioners. Our life expectancy has increased. I remember when I was a child, we looked at a 65-year-old man as a very old man. Today's 65-year-olds are still, one might say, young people. This is how we got our own electorate.

- But there were pensioners in Israel before, and the party of pensioners managed to enter parliament only this year.

- The main reason for our success was the illness of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (on January 4, he was hospitalized with a stroke and has not regained consciousness since then. - Ed .). Sharon created a new party, Kadima, on the eve of the elections. However, after he was declared incompetent, a vacuum was created in the political situation. After all, many Israelis were ready to vote for Kadima only because it was led by Sharon. If Sharon had remained the head of the Kadima party's election list, then we would also have become part of Kadima. Sharon promised us high places on the party list and the portfolio of Minister for Pensioners.

— Young Israelis also voted for your party...

— Among young people there were also many who doubted whom to vote for. Not finding a better choice, they settled on us. We are all well over sixty, and so we decided to go into politics. Young people liked it. After all, they also think about how their parents will live after retirement, and how they themselves will live.

- You are the Minister for Pensioners. What are your responsibilities?

-- There is no single state pension in Israel. The person receives the money accumulated over the years of work, which he contributed to the National Insurance Institute. Therefore, the size of the pension depends on the work experience of the pensioner. If he repatriated to Israel already at pre-retirement age and was able to work in the country for only a few years before reaching retirement age, he will receive a subsistence allowance, which today is approximately 2,000 shekels (about $450 - Ed .). Our goal is to increase the old-age benefit to the minimum wage (from June 1 it is about $800 - Ed .). In addition, I am seeking to increase the “basket” of free medical services for both the elderly and the rest of the population, and to improve the overall standard of living of pensioners.

- They say that your party does not have a clear position on issues such as the security of Israel...

- We do not have party discipline on issues that are not specified in coalition agreements - this is true. But to say that we do not have a clear position on issues not directly related to our party’s program is incorrect.

— During the election campaign, you said that you would donate your salary to the needs of poor elderly people. Has this already happened?

“I wasn’t talking about that, but about the fact that I was going to donate part of the income of my business to the needs of the poor.” This is what we do. My agricultural company spends about 100 million shekels ($22 million) annually on this purpose.

—You are friends with the Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Does this interfere with your work in the Israeli government?

- And I’m not friends with him. Fidel has no friends at all. We are helping Cuba develop agriculture. Our activities on the island are purely business in nature.

- But you communicate with Castro. What can you tell us about him?

- Many people think that Fidel is losing control over the situation in Cuba. But that's not true. He is a strong leader, person and politician. He receives daily reports on the situation in the country and the world. He definitely does not suffer from insanity.

- There is a spy scandal associated with your name. In November 1985, Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard was arrested in the United States. In 1987 he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The US, despite Israeli requests, refuses to release this ex-Navy analyst. You have recruited Pollard. Do you intend to seek his release?

“You are asking a question that I would not like to answer.” But as a minister in the Israeli government, I will do everything that depends on me - and that's all I can tell you.

—You became a member of the Knesset at the age of 79. They say about you that to maintain good health, you have developed a complex of healthy products that you take every day...

-- I exercise regularly, I try to do it at least twice a week. I'm trying to eat more vegetables. As for mental stress, my advice to people of our age is to never neglect them. We need to read, be interested in life - this is what makes us young. Although the years take their toll. I was born in the same year as Fidel Castro and Elizabeth II. And the Queen of England, despite all these incredible hats on her head, looks better than me.

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79-year-old Rafi Eitan , head of the Gil (Age) party of Israeli pensioners, is a legendary personality. His mother is from Saratov, his father is from Belarus. Eitan was born 22 years before the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, and served in the Palmach (the defense force for Jewish settlements in Mandatory Palestine), the Shin Bet (general security service) and the Mossad (foreign intelligence service). Participated in a special operation to capture Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960. He was involved in a scandal involving US citizen Jonathan Pollard, who was arrested in 1985 for spying for Israel. Now Eitan is a businessman, he has landholdings in Cuba, and his friendship with Fidel Castro is legendary. "TIME FOR NEWS"

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And you can’t live on a pension in Israel

There is no concept of a pension as such in Israel. Upon reaching a certain age (67 years for men and 64 years for women, if they are working at the time of retirement; and 70 years for men and women, if they are not working at the time of retirement), the citizen receives monthly money from the amount accumulated from contributions to the National Insurance Institute (INS). Deductions are made from salary.

Those who did not save money in the INS, for example those who came to Israel at pre-retirement age, are entitled to old-age benefits. It is calculated based on many parameters: marital status, presence of children under 16 years of age... In addition to the basic amount, people of retirement age receive social benefits. If a pensioner does not have his own apartment, then usually he is partially or fully paid for the rent of the apartment.

Today, old-age benefits (without allowances) for a single person are 1,127 shekels per month ($250), for a married couple 2,043 shekels ($454). However, even taking into account all kinds of allowances, which increase the size of the pension by about a quarter, it is difficult to live with dignity on this money in Israel. For example: a loaf of bread in dollars costs about two dollars, a carton of milk costs 1.2 dollars, a liter of gasoline costs a little more - 1.4 dollars. A trip to the cinema will cost 6.6 dollars, and a trip from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv by bus - almost 4 dollars. Maria GRISHINA, Jerusalem

Interviewed by Maria GRISHINA and Dmitry DUBOV, Jerusalem