Though “settlers” have a young and vibrant image, they need senior citizens’ homes just like any other populace, says Pensioners’ Affairs Deputy Minister Leah Ness of the Likud. Leah Ness, who serves as Deputy Minister for Pensioners’ Affairs, visited Efrat in Gush Etzion on Monday, exploring ways to help the town’s senior citizens. Efrat, which she called the “capital” of Gush Etzion (the bloc of Jewish communities in northern Judea, south of Jerusalem), is the 7th largest Jewish town in Judea and Samaria. It has a population of nearly 8,500, of whom 4% are over age 65. “Efrat is a relatively young town,” Ness said, “but in all of Israel the elderly citizens are some 10% of the population – and the Central Bureau of Statistics reports that within 20 years, this proportion will double. This is very significant, and it will have demographic, social and economic effects on the entire country. We must therefore rethink this entire issue, planning and redeploying for the long-range.” Dr. Ness, for whom this is her second, non-consecutive, Knesset term, said Efrat is just one of the places in Israel that she and Pensioners’ Affairs Ministry officials are visiting in order to see the needs of the elderly population in Israel. “Despite the fact that the original zoning plans for Efrat did not include old age homes,” she said, “it is important to start planning one now.” She called for a swift end to the Jewish construction freeze in Judea and Samaria, which is halting construction for senior citizens as well. Ness and the other visiting officials stopped off in the “One and a Half Million Buttons” exhibition in the “Aseh Hayil” junior high school. The students collected the buttons, together with associated Holocaust stories, in memory of the 1.5 million children murdered in the Holocaust. They also met with Mayor Oded Revivi and with municipal Welfare Service directors. “It is important for me to come here to Efrat and strengthen the residents,” Ness said. “Efrat is in the heart of the Israeli consensus, yet still suffers from an ongoing freeze. As capital of Gush Etzion, Efrat should be flower and flourish just like any other city in Israel.”
