Compensation for Palestinian Holocaust Victims

This same historical approach should be used for the Palestinian holocaust victims for justice and compensation. t

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- Belgium will pay $170 million to Holocaust survivors, families of victims and the Jewish community for their material losses during World War II.

Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt has apologized for Belgium's involvement in the deportation of Jews to Nazi death camps.

Some 50,000 Jews lived in Belgium in the 1930s and about half died in the Holocaust.

Of the total payout, $69.8 million will come from the Belgian authorities, and $85 million from banks. Most of the remainder came from insurance companies.

Campaigners welcomed the decision to compensate those whose property and goods in Belgium had been looted by German Nazi occupiers.

"In a certain way, justice has been done. Unfortunately there are people who never came back" from the Nazi death camps, said Eli Ringer, the co-chair of the committee on the restitution of Jewish assets.