Egypt has revoked annual grants of LE100,000 (US$14,000) allocated by former President Hosni Mubarak to the Jewish community in the country, an Egyptian cabinet official said Wednesday.
Mubarak supported the Jewish community through a confidential measure in the budget, head of the central department for financial and administrative affairs Soad Mekky said during a meeting for the Shura Council's Human Rights committee on the state budget, as reported by Anadolu Turkish news agency. Mubarak secretly allotted the sum to the Jewish community starting in 1988, she added.
The annual grant was apportioned to the Jewish community from 1988 to 2012, Mekki said. The grant was suspended in 2003 under former Minister of Social Affairs Amina al-Gendy, but was later reinstated upon her request.
Egypt had a flourishing Jewish community of more than 50,000 in the first half of the 20th century. Some say that there are now less than 200 Egyptian Jews still living in the country.
