Italian Jews Return to Libyan Birthplace

With strengthening ties between Italy and Libya, and a meeting between Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, two Jewish women living in Italy have been granted permission to visit their family homes in Libya, according to Arab news sources.

According to the report, the women have not been able to visit their native home of Libya since their families’ emigration to Italy in 1967.

According to Haaretz, the two nations have been reconciling in recent years since Italy agreed to pay $5 billion in reparations to Libya to compensate for three decades of colonial rule in North Africa.

The family’s emigration to Italy came after Israel’s independence, a post-war time that proved to be complicated for Diaspora Jews.

Libyan Jews were subject to harsh racial Italian rule during World War II, with thousands migrating to Israel in its early establishment. There was an invitation for Jews to come back to Libya on the eve of its independence given by former Prime Minister Mahmud Muntasser. However, the former leader also remarked that he “could not see a future for them in Libya.”

After Gadhafi’s revolution, even more Jews fled the country either for Italy or Israel. Both women’s families chose Italy. Now, Gadhafi has allowed some of its previous Jewish Libyan citizens living in Italy to visit their birthplaces, mostly in cities including Tripoli and Benghazi .