Mideast - AFP
Libya ready to compensate Jewish emigrants: Kadhafi's son
Date: Tue, Mar 23, 2004
DOHA (AFP) - Saif al-Islam, a son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, said in remarks published that Tripoli is ready to compensate Jews that left Libya for Israel and other countries and whose assets were seized.
"We're not thinking now of establishing contacts or relations with Israel because it's not on the agenda and no one has requested it of us. But we can in the future open the file of compensation for Jews for their seized funds or assets," he told Qatari newspapers in an interview during a two-day visit.
"It is a responsibility to invite Libyan Jews, including from Israel ... to return to Libya, their ancestral land, and to abandon the land they acquired from the Palestinians," he added.
There were around 38,000 Jews in Libya in 1948 when the Jewish state was created and the vast majority emigrated in the next three years.
There are no Jews believed to be still living in the Arab state and Libyan Jewry in Israel only counts a few hundred members.
Israel and Libya have no diplomatic relations, and Kadhafi once advised Israelis to found a state in Alaska, saying "Palestine will be the graveyard of the Jews."
In January, Israeli MP Gila Gamliel urged Kadhafi to allow Israeli Jews with family roots in Libya to go there on pilgrimages.
"I am urging you to make a historic decision and follow the example set by Morocco, in line with the long-standing tradition of Muslim-Jewish coexistence in North Africa, by allowing Israelis of Libyan descent to go on pilgrimages" there," Gamliel told the Maaiv daily.
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