The Cabinet Sunday morning authorized a cut in electric bills for Israel’s 80,000 survivors of the Holocaust. The Infrastructures Ministry has 45 days to come up with a new schedule of fees after consultations with the Finance and Welfare ministries.

“The decision is important and moral," said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. “The government is obligated morally to help Holocaust survivors and prevent personal crises. Their elderly age requires us to act quickly and generously."

The reductions are an addition to previous decisions to grant aid to survivors, amounting to approximately one million shekels ($350 million) over three years. The current law provides a 50 percent reduction for the first 400 kilowatt hours for people termed as needy but does not necesssarily include survivors.

The bill for further cuts was backed by Prime Minister Netanyahu and Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau. His office noted that there are 7,180 survivors who are in need.

“Today, 65 years after the ghettoes, death marches and death camps, too many survivors do not lead decent lives,” Minister Landau said. “It is important to take care of their welfare after they have suffered the terrors of the Holocaust. We remember those who no longer are living, and the government will continue to act to help survivors who remain as living witnesses to Nazi horrors.”