Israel said on Sunday that Foreign Minister Eli Cohen held a meeting with Najla Mangoush, his Libyan counterpart, in Italy, the first-ever official meeting between the countries’ top diplomats.
According to The Times of Israel, Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibeh quickly distanced himself from the move, suspending Mangoush from her position and launching a probe, while the country’s Foreign Ministry insisted the two diplomats had met accidentally and ruled out any steps toward normalization with Israel.
Following Israel’s announcement of the meeting, a number of Libyan media outlets pointed to one man as the possible mastermind: Raphael Luzon, chairman of the Union of Libyan Jews.
While Luzon had no links to the latest diplomatic meeting, in an interview late Sunday with The Times of Israel, he described the first contacts he facilitated between high-ranking Israeli and Libyan officials some six years ago, opening the way to last week’s meeting.
The Israeli news agency reported that in June 2017, Luzon arranged a meeting on the Greek island of Rhodes that brought together delegations from the two countries.
"Israel was represented by then-social equality minister Gila Gamliel, whose mother hails from Libya, and by then-communications minister Ayoub Kara, deputy Knesset speaker Yehiel Bar and retired major general Yom Tov Samia, who is also of Libyan extraction. The Libyan delegation in Rhodes was headed by then-minister of media, culture and antiquities Omar al-Gawairi. The country at the time was under two separate governments, a situation that persists today, though in a different configuration."
The conference, which was held at the Rodos Palace Hotel over three days, focused on the 50th anniversary of the expulsion of Jews from Libya after the 1967 Six Day War. The Libyan delegate spoke at the conference about Libyan Jews’ right to return to the country and to receive compensation for the losses they incurred.
Luzon said that the Rhodes meeting was followed in subsequent years by a series of other meetings he organized between Israeli and Libyan officials in Rome, Tunisia and Greece.
“At some point it was too sensitive to handle, and I handed the issue over to diplomats,” he said.
“Last week’s encounter between the two top diplomats was the culmination of six years of work. It should have happened much sooner, but the current instability in Libya did not allow for it.”
“In the hours after the announcement, some extremists took to the streets and burned Israeli flags,” he said. “The prime minister is a hostage to radical Islamists. Before going public, Israel should have probably consulted with someone who understands Libya and its internal dynamics,” The Times of Israel quoted Luzon.
He also said that one of the ambitions of Libya's today leaders is to gain access to Israel’s scientific advances and world-renowned technology for irrigation and agriculture, "in the way Morocco did.”
Luzon also claimed that some Israeli technologies are already being deployed unofficially in Libya, thanks in part to his own mediation, though he did not go into details.
According to the Israeli news agency, another important factor for growing relations with Israel would be to gain the favor of the US.
Libya is still under two separate governments: The country’s west is under al-Dbeibeh, the internationally recognized leader, while the rival government under Colonel Khalifa Haftar rules over the east.
The last time Luzon visited Libya was in 2012, soon after the fall of Gaddafi. During that visit, he was kidnapped by an extremist militia and detained for eight days before being freed. In spite of his long absence ever since, he is a popular figure in the country. He claims he has even received requests by local politicians to run in the next elections for parliament.
