Union of Libyan Jews Chairman: Meetings between Israeli, Libyan Officials Started Six Years ago

Luzon and al-Gawairi during their meeting in Rhodes, 2017 (FACEBOOK)
Luzon and al-Gawairi during their meeting in Rhodes, 2017 (FACEBOOK)
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Union of Libyan Jews Chairman: Meetings between Israeli, Libyan Officials Started Six Years ago

Luzon and al-Gawairi during their meeting in Rhodes, 2017 (FACEBOOK)
Luzon and al-Gawairi during their meeting in Rhodes, 2017 (FACEBOOK)

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.



Residents of Syria's Quneitra are Frustrated by Lack of Action to Halt Israeli Advance

Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Residents of Syria's Quneitra are Frustrated by Lack of Action to Halt Israeli Advance

Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

A main road in the provincial capital of Quneitra in southern Syria was blocked with mounds of dirt, fallen palm trees and a metal pole that appeared to have once been a traffic light. On the other side of the barriers, an Israeli tank could be seen maneuvering in the middle of the street.
Israeli forces entered the area — which lies in a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights that was established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement between Syria and Israel — soon after the fall of President Bashar Assad last month in the country's 13-year civil war.
The Israeli military has also made incursions into Syrian territory outside of the buffer zone, sparking protests by local residents. They said the Israeli forces had demolished homes and prevented farmers from going to their fields in some areas. On at least two occasions, Israeli troops reportedly opened fire on protesters who approached them.
Residents of Quneitra, a seemingly serene bucolic expanse of small villages and olive groves, said they are frustrated, both by the Israeli advances and by the lack of action from Syria’s new authorities and the international community.
Rinata Fastas said that Israeli forces had raided the local government buildings but had not so far entered residential neighborhoods. Her house lies just inside of the newly blocked-off area in the provincial capital formerly called Baath City, after Assad's former ruling party, and now renamed Salam City.
She said she is afraid Israeli troops may advance farther or try to permanently occupy the area they have already taken. Israel still controls the Golan Heights that it captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed. The international community, with the exception of the US, regards it as occupied.
Fastas said she understands that Syria, which is now trying to build its national institutions and army from scratch, is no position to militarily confront Israel.
“But why is no one in the new Syrian state coming out and talking about the violations that are happening in Quneitra province and against the rights of its people?” she asked.
The United Nations has accused Israel of violating the 1974 ceasefire agreement by entering the buffer zone.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said troops will stay on "until another arrangement is found that will ensure Israel’s security.” He was speaking from the snowy peak of Mount Hermon, Syria’s tallest mountain known as Jabal al Sheikh in Arabic, which has now been captured by Israeli forces.
An Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the matter, said the military will remain in the area it has taken until it is satisfied that the new Syrian authorities do not pose a danger to Israel.
The new Syrian government has lodged a complaint with the UN Security Council about Israeli airstrikes and advances into Syrian territory.
The country’s new de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has also publicly said Syria is not seeking a military conflict with Israel and will not pose a threat to its neighbors or to the West.
In the meantime, residents of Quneitra have largely been left to fend for themselves.
In the village of Rafid, inside the buffer zone, locals said the Israeli military had demolished two civilian houses and a grove of trees as well as a former Syrian army outpost.
Mayor Omar Mahmoud Ismail said when the Israeli forces entered the village, an Israeli officer greeted him and told him, “I am your friend.”
“I told him, ‘You are not my friend, and if you were, you wouldn’t enter like this,’" Ismail said.
Locals who organized a protest were met with Israeli fire
In Dawaya, a village outside the buffer zone, 18-year-old Abdelrahman Khaled al-Aqqa was lying on a mattress in his family home Sunday, still recovering after being shot in both legs. Al-Aqqa said he joined about 100 people from the area on Dec. 25 in protest against the Israeli incursion, chanting “Syria is free, Israel get out!”
“We didn’t have any weapons, we were just there in the clothes we were wearing,” he said. “But when we got close to them, they started shooting at us.”
Six protesters were wounded, according to residents and media reports. Another man was injured on Dec. 20 in a similar incident in the village of Maariyah. The Israeli army said at the time that it had fired because the man was quickly approaching and ignored calls to stop.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Dec. 25 incident.
Adel Subhi al-Ali, a local Sunni religious official, sat with his 21-year-old son, Moutasem, who was recovering after being shot in the stomach in the Dec. 25 protest. He was driven first to a local hospital that did not have the capacity to treat him, and then to Damascus where he underwent surgery.
When he saw the Israeli tanks moving in, “We felt that an occupation is occupying our land. So we had to defend it, even though we didn’t have weapons, ... It is impossible for them to settle here,” al-Ali said.
Since the day of the protest, the Israeli army has not returned to the area, he said.
Al-Ali called for the international community to “pressure Israel to return to what was agreed upon with the former regime,” referring to the 1974 ceasefire agreement, and to return the Golan Heights to Syria.
But he acknowledged that Syria has little leverage.
“We are starting from zero, we need to build a state,” al-Ali said, echoing Syria's new leaders. “We are not ready as a country now to open wars with another country."