Jews confirm 'allowances given'

SANA'A, March 25 (Saba) - The Jewish families living in the Tourist City, Sana'a,
have confirmed they had been given their allowances for January and February,2009.

The move comes after a long appeal by the families to authorities to give them their
approved allocations and after announced plans the Jews would hold further sit-ins
before the Cabinet Presidency.

Over two months, the Jewish families in Sana'a have held sit-ins protesting bad
living conditions after they had sold every thing they owned to provide food for
themselves.

65 Jewish people live in the Tourist City in Sana'a after their relocation from the
northern province of Saada.

After they started to experience harassments in the province by the Houthi rebels,
the authorities relocated them to the capital.

Other Jewish families of those living in Amran province were transferred to the city
after locals in the province started to hurt them.

In December, a chief rabbi's brother, Masha Yaish,25, was murdered at a market in
Amran as a gunman shot him dead.

The murderer was arrested shortly after the incident. Later he went on trial. And
almost two weeks ago, a special penal court ruled that the killer, an ex-pilot in
the Yemen Air Force, was not accountable due a mental illness he suffers.

According to the verdict, the family of the pilot, would pay a sum of YR 5 million
to the victim's family and the killer should be hospitalized at psychiatric
facility.

FR