Jews of Libyan origin hope to receive $529m in compensation

TEL AVIV: From afar, the pile of documents on the desk of Libya’s President Muammar Qadhafi may look like just another bureaucratic list that the ruler can doodle on as he continues with his daily agenda. But these documents hide a story that involves senior Libyan, Italian, American and Israeli government officials, according to a report carried by Israel’s Ynet news.

A few weeks ago, an unusual secret meeting took place at the United Nations offices: On one side, a close associate of Qadhafi’s, and on the other, an American Jewish lawyer. The agenda: Deliberations over an operation materialising as we speak — 400 million euros ($529 million) compensation being requested by Libya’s 120,000 Jews, mostly Israeli residents, for years of suffering under Italian rule.
 Alan Gershon, the lawyer hired by the Libyan expats, held the position of legal advisor to the US mission to the UN, and has already succeeded in making the Libyan government pay huge sums in compensation to the families of those killed in the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie in Scotland.

Jews of Libyan descent decided to act after the Italian government signed an agreement stating that it would pay Libya five billion euro — compensation for the Imperialist regime of 1911-1943.

Gershon, who together with former Knesset kember and lawyer David Mena and a group of Italian lawyers is representing the Jews in the affair, is demanding the money from Italy and not Libya. Former Italian ministers and Jewish Italian parliament members were enlisted for the mission.

Their main claim is that Jews were not just like everyone else among the conquered; rather they suffered from the Italian rule under Benito Mussolini more than the Muslims. They were sent to work camps, evicted from their homes, suffered under the “Shabbat laws” which forced them to work on Shabbat and some were even sent to Nazi concentration camps.
 “We were among the conquered, we suffered more and so we want our share of the compensation,” said the chairman of the International Organisation for Jews of Libyan Descent, Meir Kahlon. “We will not ignore the fate of the dozens of Libyan Jews murdered during the Italian regime’s rule.”

Joined by the team of lawyers, Kahlon formed an agreement that outlines the plan. “The operation will focus at first on the Libyan government, for an understanding that part of the compensation funds were meant for the Jews,” the agreement stated.

“This will mainly be done in the US, without any noticeable Israeli activity but through the activities of Gershon and his team with the Libyan representative in Washington and the Libyan mission at the UN. At the same time we will ask international forums with connections to Libya, Qadhafi and his son to join the operation.”

At the moment, the demands have not been formed into legal action. “We will attempt to reach a settlement with the Libyan and Italian governments without involving the courts,” said Kahlon. “The Italian ambassador has announced that they are willing to compensate Libya’s Jews, but that the agreement must come from Libya.”
The issue has already been brought to Qadhafi’s attention, and conversations held in Italy reveal that there is no fundamental problem with the solution of reaching a settlement with Jews in Israel, so long as he gives his consent. It is no surprise then that the former Jewish Libyan community is all a flutter at the potential.

Heading West

The story is not a simple one – this is a community whose members were not seen as Holocaust survivors for decades. It was only two months ago, nearly 60 years too late that the government offices finalised the addition of the 5,000 Jews of Libyan descent to those eligible for compensation according to the Nazi persecution disability law.

The move cost an estimated $30 million. The eligibility of Libyan Jews is based on their exposure to Nazi persecution during World War II and their fearful escape from their homes. “The Jews suffered much more than the Muslims under Italian rule,” said Deputy Finance Minister Itzhak Cohen, who is of Libyan descent. “My aunt was sent to the death camps with her children. We’re entitled to compensation.”

Kahlon and the other initiators are very much aware of the importance of the US in the move. They hired Gershon, who is experience in affairs like this, as their lawyer for a reason. The agreement states: “We appreciate that these days Libya needs US support and sympathy more than anything else, which is why the hub of our activities will be carried out by Gershon and his team, which has experience in dealing with the Libyan government, in the US.”

It seems that the Lockerbie compensation agreement, which Gershon oversaw, brought on an about-face in Libya’s image around the world. 


“Libya wants to open up to the West” said a foreign ministry official, “and wants to promote relations in the US, where the main pressure to allocate compensation funds to the Jews according to their relative part in the population exists.”