Exiled Libyan Jew Eying Post-Gadhafi Future
The leader of the Libyan-Jewish community in Britain said that he has been invited to run for political office in the post- Muammar Gadhafi era.
Raphael Luzon told the Jerusalem Post Tuesday, a day after the fall of the Libyan capital Tripoli to rebel forces, that opposition leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil has invited him to return to Libya and run in free elections.
Jalil is a former Libyan justice minister and now chairman of the rebel council in Benghazi.
Luzon told the newspaper that he was invited to take part in the elections “because they would like it to be open to all people including women and Jews.”
Luzon, whose family fled Libya in 1967, met Gadhafi twice in recent years.
He said he would await further developments in the country before making a decision.
Luzon told the Jerusalem Post that reconstruction of the war-torn country and the restitution of Jewish assets confiscated by the Libyan regime would top his political agenda.
Fighting continued in the Libyan capital on Tuesday, centered on Gadhafi’s fortified compound.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
