Israel remembers the millions

From Ha'aretz, Israel is supporting a lawyer's claim for $4,100,000 for work on holocaust compensation.

Lawyers on behalf of Israel have spoken in a New York court in defense of a U.S. jurist's demand for a fee for handling claims submitted by Holocaust survivors. The lawyers refrained from commenting on the sum being demanded by Prof. Burt Neuborne, who is seeking payment of $4.1 million, at a rate of $700 per hour.

Neuborne has represented Holocaust survivors seeking humanitarian aid, and claims to have put in some 8,000 hours of work on the cases. His demand for $4.1 million, he says, constitutes just 75 percent of the sum owed to him.

Neuborne's demand for payment has sparked much anger among Holocaust survivors in the United States who say that the man had said on several occasions that he was working free of charge. The survivors are also enraged by the fact that Neuborne is demanding payment from a fund serving Holocaust survivors worldwide.

"I find it very disappointing that the State of Israel is choosing to work against Holocaust survivors rather than help them," Leo Rechter, president of NAHOS (National Association of Jewish Child Holocaust Survivors), said to Haaretz.

Rechter claims that the fee Neuborne is demanding surpasses the sum received by Holocaust survivors in the United States out of the total amount of money distributed as aid to needy survivors around the world.

The article doesn't actually explain why the State of Israel has a role in this.