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Gina Waldman was forced to flee her native Libya in 1967 as anti-Jewish mobs took to the streets of Tripoli, burning down her fathers warehouse.

Waldman, like thousands of other Libyan Jews who left the country amid public and state-sponsored anti-Semitism in the 20th century, was forced to leave behind both personal belongings she was only allowed to bring a single suitcase with her and a rich cultural heritage that testified to over 2,000 years of Jewish presence in the North African country. Today, no Jews remain in Libya.

That heritage, including synagogues, cemeteries and ritual objects, has long been under threat. But now an additional obstacle is coming from an unlikely place, said Waldman president and co-founder of the group Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa.

The threat stems from a memorandum of understanding request by the Libyan government currently under consideration by the State Department that would prohibit artifacts dated 1911 and earlier, including Jewish ritual objects, from being brought into the United States from Libya.

That would mean anyone attempting to bring in antique Torah scrolls, tombstones, books and other ritual objects would be stopped at the U.S. border, and the objects would be confiscated and sent back to Libya.

Waldman, who lives in San Francisco, called the measure very, very offensive to the Jewish community.

She said the memorandum would block people from removing Jewish artifacts when the very government itself has destroyed every single synagogue, every single [Jewish] cemetery.

Waldman said she is not aware of anyone having attempted to take Jewish artifacts out of Libya, or of any plans to do so. But she worries that the memorandum would affect any future efforts to recover those materials.

Pillaging of Jewish sites

The State Departments Cultural Property Advisory Committee convened last week to discuss and consider the request, which Libya submitted in June. It has not announced a decision. The State Department emailed JTA saying it would comment by Monday, but did not follow through.

Libya claims that the request is necessary for curbing black market sales of artifacts from the country.

Libyas patrimony is now under severe and continuing threat of pillage due to ongoing conflict and the rise of violent extremist groups, according to a State Department summary of the request. (The original request is not available publicly.)

In addition to mentioning threats to Islamic and Berber materials, the summary specifically refers to Jewish sites being pillaged.

Many of the old Jewish cemeteries and sites are being looted for antiquities to export where there is an active transit or ultimate market for these objects, it says, later adding that some Jewish materials are sold in Israel.

Critics say the request is illegitimate and allows for Libya to claim ownership of various artifacts, including those that belong to its exiled Jewish community.

Kate Fitz Gibbon, a lawyer who served on the Cultural Property Advisory Committee in 2002-03, was critical of the memorandum.

I was terrifically offended at this idea that a Middle Eastern country that has forcibly expelled all of its Jewish population should have whatever is left, she told JTA. This is the opposite of Holocaust repatriation. This is telling the survivors they should give whats left back to the oppressors.

Fitz Gibbon added that there was no proof in the State Department summary that Jewish artifacts were in fact being taken out of Libya.

Last Wednesday, she spoke in opposition to the memorandum on behalf of the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association at a public open session organized by the State Department.

In addition to sharing objections on behalf of Jewish critics, Fitz Gibbon also said Libya was not capable of properly preserving artifacts. The country, which has been in disarray following the 2011 fighting that toppled dictator Muammar Gadhafi, is currently under the rule of a provisional government and violent clashes continue to break out.

Libya, which has no museums they have 24 museums; they are all closed no tourism, has never done cultural exchange, and in this actual request said Were not going to do any cultural exchange because we dont have the money or time of the ability, there is no question that Libya doesnt even meet one of these criteria for an MOU, Fitz Gibbon said.

Iraqi Jewish archive

Libyas request is not unprecedented. The United States has similar agreements with 17 countries, including one reached recently with Egypt.

Congress also has passed emergency laws restricting artifacts from Iraq and Syria from entering the country.

Such laws draw on a 1970 UNESCO convention that allows for the placing of import and export restrictions in cases where a countrys patrimony is under threat of pillaging and its artifacts in danger of entering the black market.

A similar battle is playing out with an Iraqi Jewish archive uncovered by U.S. troops in Baghdad in 2003.

The artifacts were on tour in the United States in 2014 and were supposed to be returned to Iraq. But Jewish groups objected, saying they should be in the custody of the Iraqi Jewish community, which is living outside of the country after being driven out. The case of those artifacts remains unresolved.

Marc Lubin, a lawyer assisting Waldmans group, said efforts to keep Jewish artifacts in Libya or Iraq do not guarantee the preservation of the objects.

As was the case with the Iraqi Jewish artifacts, the Libyan MOU legitimizes Libyas confiscation of the property of fleeing Jews by recognizing the Libyan governments legal claim to that property, Lubin told JTA in an email.

It gives a green light to future desecration by prohibiting the removal of sacred items from Libya for safe-keeping. It requires Libyan Jewrys heritage remain in place as a target for fanatics, all in the name of preservation, Lubin added.

Critics say Libyan-Jewish artifacts arent the only thing at stake. Granting the memorandum could set a precedent.

JIMENA is fighting this MOU because it sets a precedent to all of the Muslim, mostly Arab, countries who have desecrated and impounded all of our antiquities, all of our heritage, Waldman said.

Fitz Gibbon echoed Waldmans concerns.

There was recently an MOU granted for Egypt, and the past pattern for MOUs has been that one nation, then two nations, then all nations within a specific region were covered, Fitz Gibbon said.

Waldman said JIMENA is not concerned with the artifacts monetary value, but rather with establishing the fact that the objects belong to the exiled Jewish community.

Theyve already taken private property, and now they are going after community property and our heritage, Waldman said. It isnt money value that we are fighting for, but it is the right to know we are the rightful owners they are not.

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Why Jews From Libya Are Worried About the Fate of the Country's Jewish Artifacts - Haaretz

Emmanuel Macron looks on as Fayez al-Sarraj shakes hands with General Khalifa Haftar after talks aimed at easing tensions in Libya, in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, near Paris, on July 25, 2017.

A French-led effort to reunify fractured Libya failed to consult powerful local forces and risks achieving little beyond boosting the legitimacy of a renegade general who has recently racked up significant battlefield gains.

On paper, the step taken by Libyas rival leaders on Tuesday -- guided by French President Emmanuel Macron and a United Nations envoy -- was their boldest yet toward resolving Libyas six-year crisis. After talks at a country mansion outside Paris, UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and eastern military strongman Khalifa Haftar agreed to -- but didnt sign -- a text calling for a ceasefire, combining the North African crude producers divided state oil company and holding elections as soon as possible.

Yet the accord will struggle to survive the transition from French chateau to Libyas fiercely contested politics, according to analysts including Riccardo Fabiani at Eurasia Group.

All we have is a very good photo op, which Macron and Haftar exploited very well,said Fabiani,senior analyst for the Middle East and North Africa. The agreement accorded Haftar a veneer of respect on the international arena -- a major achievement for a leader whose authority has so far been backed largely by Russias Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President -- and former military chief -- Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. It was, though, reached without input from regional officials, or myriad militias and political parties whose cooperation will be needed to make it stick, he said.

Playing out just across the Mediterranean Sea, Libyas descent into chaos since the uprising that toppled Muammar Qaddafi in 2011 has fueled the two most severe cross-border challenges facing many European leaders -- the flow of poor migrants desperate to build better lives and the opportunist movement of Islamic State extremists. Macrons initiative comes after abortive attempts by Italy, the former colonizing power, to forge a peace.

While a UN-mediated peace deal was meant to unite Libya, Serraj has struggled to expand his influence outside the capitalsince arriving in Tripoli in March 2016. Haftars Libyan National Army controls large parts of the country from its base in the east, this month capturing the key city of Benghazi after years of fighting with Islamist militias and earlier Islamic State jihadists.

There is a political legitimacy thats in the hands of Prime Minister Al-Serraj and a military legitimacy thats held by General Haftar, Macron said as the deal was announced. They have decided to work together on a political process, on a security process, and for a unified economy that will benefit the Libyan people.

Serraj and Haftar met in Abu Dhabi in May for the first time since early last year. Initially hailed as a breakthrough, analysts said later the meeting was fruitless. Each side issued its own communique after the meeting, and battlefield developments in the south of Libya soon eroded any goodwill.

With his military dominance now cemented, Haftar appears to have gone furtherin the talks at the Chateau de la Celle than he did in Abu Dhabi in a search for more political recognition from European countries, according to an aide to Macron.

Even so, its unlikely to breach the political stalemate that has endured in Libya for years, said Oded Berkowitz, senior analyst for the Middle East and North Africa with geopolitical risk consultancy Max Security in Israel. Haftar controls the main oil fields and ports, and his prominence now shows theres international recognition that Haftar has to be involved in any political settlement, he said. Hes now a force to be reckoned with.

French officials said the goal of Tuesdays meeting was to define general guidelines that would help the UNs Special Representative to Libya,Ghassan Salame, reach an agreement leading to elections next year. Macron saluted earlier efforts of countries such as Italy, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and the U.A.E. to seek a solution and said theyd all been involved in the preparations for the talks in France.

Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, in an interview with the newspaper La Stampa published on Tuesday,had voiced his countrys irritation at Macrons initiative. Italy sees former colony Libya as part of its sphere of influence.

Italy and France have both been actively seeking a unified Libya because the disorder in the country has led to weapons flowing to Islamic militants in former French colonies in West Africa, such as Mali and Chad, and to human traffickers using Libyan beaches to ship migrants toward Italian shores.

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The Libyan people need this peace, and the Mediterranean deserves this peace, Macron said. We are directly affected. In an interview with France 24 television, Serraj said it was too early for him to decide whether or not to contest any election held under the plan. But while acknowledging there was much to do, he stressed real achievements. Haftar had agreed a ballot was the only way to solve the crisis and that the military must fall under a civilian executive authority, he said.

The ball is in Haftars court, according to Berkowitz, who added that the military leader stood to gain the most from the declaration in France.

With assistance by Salma El Wardany, Ahmed Feteha, and Gregory Viscusi

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Libya Peace Deal Must Survive Shift From Chateau to Battlefield - Bloomberg

Mansour Al-Kikhia is a Libyan politician and diplomat, one of the most prominent opponents of the former dictator Muammar Gaddafi. He vanished under mysterious circumstances in 1993 until his body was found 19 years later in a refrigerator in a villa belonging to Libya's former military intelligence services in Tripoli.

Al-Kikhia was born in 1931 in Benghazi. As a child, he grew up and studied primarily in his hometown Benghazi before being sent to Egypt to attend high school. He went on to complete his university education and he graduated in 1950.

Al-Kikhia received a degree in international law from the Sorbonne University in Paris which put him on a path to becoming a human rights activist and ultimately meant facing the Gaddafi regime. In 1984 he founded the Libyan Human Rights Association from exile then two years later he established the Libyan National Alliance and was elected to the position of Secretary General. In the early 1970s, he stood for his principles and defended the rights of prisoners despite the risk of this work under a regime that arrests, intimidates, tortures and kills people, who just wanted to get their voices heard.

Al-Kikhia had long been involved in politics since the time of the monarchy, which made of him a leading politician and diplomat. In 1962 he joined the Libyan Embassy in France and after, in Algeria in 1963. He was a General Consul in Geneva (1963-1967) and a member of the Libyan Mission to the United Nations in 1968. After the coup of Muammar Gaddafi he went on occupying important official posts. He was appointed as Libyan foreign minister from 1972-1973; then he was appointed as the Permanent Representative of the United Nations in Libya between the years 1975-1980 before announcing his resignation and opposition to the former Gaddafi's regime in protest against the policies of summary executions practiced by the Libyan state at the time through the so-called revolutionary committees.

Al-Kikhia vanished under suspicious circumstances during his participation in the Board of Trustees of the Arab Organization for Human Rights meeting in Cairo on the 10th of December 1993.

His disappearance remained a mystery due to the lack of evidence; however, the Libyan Intelligence Services were accused of kidnapping Al-Kikhia in cooperation with the former Egyptian regime.

After years of mystery, the remains of Al-Kikhia were found in October 2012 inside a refrigerator of a villa belonging to the former military intelligence in Tripoli, owing to information provided by Abdullah al-Senussi, head of the Intelligence Service of the former regime following his arrest during the February revolution.

The CIA conducted a report that points to the involvement of the Egyptian agents in kidnapping Al-Kikhia before handing him over to the Libyan authorities who later executed him. This was confirmed by the former foreign minister of Gaddafi's regime Abd al-Rahman Shalgham in an interview with the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat, where he said that the Egyptian security kidnapped Al-Kikhia and then he was transferred to Tobruk where he was received by Abdullah al-Senussi. For nearly twenty years his whereabouts remained unknown until Gaddafi was over thrown, still, the circumstances of his death remain a mystery up to this day. Some have speculated that he died during the events at Abu Salim's prison; while some claim that he died in prison as a result of medical negligence.

The Libyan Foreign Ministry held a state funeral in Benghazi and memorial service in his honour on December 3rd, 2012.

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Who is Mansour Al-Kikhia? - The Libya Observer

MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) - Libya forces allied with UN-backed government who last year defeated Islamic State in Sirte are increasing patrols to stop the militants regrouping and threatening to launch attacks on the port city of Misrata, a military commander said.

The forces, mainly brigades from Misrata drove Islamic State from Sirte at the end of last year after a six-month campaign backed by U.S airstrikes. Islamic State took over the city in 2015 taking advantage of Libya's political chaos.

"We have spotted movements by Daesh (Islamic State) in the south of Sirte, where they are trying to regroup and break through our forces' lines in the south," said Mohamed Ghasri, spokesman for the "Al-Bunyan al-Marsous" forces in Misrata.

Ghasri gave no details of numbers of fighters estimated in the south of Sirte. But he said Misrata forces had lacked support from the international community since defeating Islamic State last year.

French officials fear Islamic State militants and other jihadists could try to exploit any power vacuum in Libya to regroup after losing ground in Syria and Iraq.

The Misrata forces took the fight to Sirte after Islamic State took over the city nearly two years ago and launched attacks on nearby oilfields and threatened Misrata, a major port city and home to one of Libya's most powerful armed factions.

Militants took advantage of Libya's steady descent into turmoil after civil war ousted Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Rival brigades of former rebels backed by competing political factions turned against each other in a fight for control.

A U.N.-backed government in Tripoli is trying to extend its influence, though it is facing resistance from some armed rivals. Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and eastern commander Khalifa Haftar agreed to work on a ceasefire and elections at talks in Paris on Wednesday.

Reporting by Ayman Al-Sahli in Misrata; writing by Ahmed Elumami in Tripoli; editing by Patrick Markey and Richard Balmforth

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Libyan forces step up patrols to stop Islamic State regrouping - Reuters

africanews

Post-Gaddafi Libya: How the current chaos was birthed africanews Political watchers said Libya at the time could not be described as a democracy and after over four decades in power, an armed uprising broke out in February 2011 leading to the fall of the Gaddafi regime, plunging the country into instability.

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Post-Gaddafi Libya: How the current chaos was birthed - africanews