Foreign Secretary Eli Cohen met with his Libyan counterpart Najla Mangoush in Italy last week, the State Department announced on Sunday. This was the first official meeting between the country’s top diplomats.
The two met to discuss the possibility of working together and preserving Jewish cultural monuments in Libya. Israeli humanitarian aid, as well as assistance with agriculture, water management and other issues were also raised at the meeting, the ministry said.
Cohen called the meeting “historic” and a “first step” in forging ties between the countries.
“Libya’s size and strategic location offers tremendous importance and potential for the State of Israel to develop relations with it,” he added. “I spoke to the Secretary of State about the great potential of this relationship for our countries and the importance of preserving the heritage of Libyan Jewry, including the renovation of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries in the country.”
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There was a sizeable Jewish community in Libya until most of its members left the country around the time of the founding of the State of Israel. It is believed that no Jews live in Libya today.
In 2021, a group of Libyan Jewish expats complained that an abandoned and old synagogue in Libya was being turned into an Islamic religious center without a permit.
The abandoned Jewish synagogue known as Dar Bishi in the old city of Tripoli, capital of Libya, April 12, 2015. (Mahmud Turkia/AFP via Getty Images)
Raphael Faelino Luzon, leader of the Union of Libyan Jews, wrote in Arabic on Facebook on Sunday that “a lot of work was being done behind the scenes to get to this agreement,” prompting speculation in the Libyan press that he might be involved could have been organizing the meeting.
Libya fell into chaos after a NATO-backed insurgency toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The country split in the ensuing chaos, with rival governments in the east and west backed by rogue militias and foreign governments.
Mangoush represents the United Nations-recognized government based in Tripoli.
While relations have never existed between Israel and Libya, there have long been reports of contacts between Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam and Israeli officials. The capricious Gaddafi himself apparently turned to Israel on a number of occasions, including to further his proposal for a unified Israeli-Palestinian country called Isratine.
The son of Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar reportedly visited Israel in 2021 for a secret meeting with Israeli officials, during which he offered to establish diplomatic relations between the two countries in exchange for Israeli support.
Libyan militia commander General Khalifa Haftar in Moscow, Russia, August 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, file)
According to the report, Haftar delivered a message from his father asking for “military and diplomatic support” from Israel in return for a pledge to begin a normalization process between Libya and Israel, similar to the Abrahamic Accords defining relations between the Jewish state and Israel the United Arab Emirates. Bahrain and Morocco.
Haftar is currently the commander of the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army, which is a rival to the Tripoli-based government.
In response to news of the meeting, Libyan presidential candidate Suleiman al-Bayoudi, who is running for the post in the United Nations-backed government, sharply criticized the meeting.
Al-Bayoudi accused Prime Minister Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibeh of pushing for normalization with Israel to win American favor, saying Dbeibeh has “nothing but Israel’s card to throw in his opponents’ faces after he has all his others.” played cards to stay in.” Power… Israel is the last straw he holds on to before he drowns.”
Al-Bayoudi called for Dbeibeh’s exclusion from upcoming elections, which have not yet been set a date but are expected to take place later this year, according to the UN envoy to Libya.
The United Nations warned last week that political divisions in Libya “pose a risk of violence and disintegration for countries”.
The fragile stability in Tripoli was rocked by fierce armed clashes between rival militias in the city on August 14-15, which reportedly killed at least 55 people and injured over 100, including an unspecified number of civilians.
Gianluca Pacchiani and agencies contributed to this report.