The Libyan regime has taken additional steps to deprive Jews with property of its use or income, the American Jewish Committee reported today, citing information from its Paris office. According to the report, the Libyan regime issued in February a new edict empowering a government official to take into custody assets and properties in Libya belonging to Jews “who have left Libyan territory definitively.” The report said the new law was “one of a series of measures taken by Libyan governments since 1952 specifically directed against Jews and their properties.”
The AJ Committee report said the effect of the new law would be to hurt the 3,500 Jews who fled Libya after the 1967 Six-Day War, under the pressure of anti-Jewish riots and who still own property in Libyan. Most of these Jews, the report added, still hold Libyan passports so it is not clear how the Libyan authorities will decide which of these Jews have “left Libyan territory definitively.” Until now, Jews had occasionally been allowed to transfer small sums out of Libya to pay for schooling of their children abroad but it is feared that even this limited freedom to make use of assets may no longer be possible.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
