The leader of a group of Libyans on pilgrimage to Moslem holy places here this week lashed out at Israel, dashing hopes that the unprecedented visit would herald a thaw in Israeli-Libyan relations.
The nearly 200 pilgrims also announced they would cut short their stay in Israel, leaving Wednesday rather than Thursday.
At the same time, the group’s anti-Israel remarks provoked right-wing Knesset members to call for the pilgrims’ immediate return to Libya.
At a news conference here Tuesday, Haj Tajouri, leader of the Libyan group, called for the liberation of Moslem holy places from Israel, which he termed occupied territory. He also called for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
He pointedly remarked that the group’s visit did not imply any recognition of the “so-called” State of Israel.
The comments contradicted earlier, more optimistic assessments by Israeli businessman Ya’acov Nimrodi, who helped organize the trip.
Nimrodi had insisted the visit signaled a political change in Israeli-Libyan relations and even spoke of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi visiting here in the future.
But Tajouri said the trip was made only because the pilgrims could not get to Mecca for the annual haj, or pilgrimage. Saudi Arabia, he said, denied access to Libyan flights in honor of the international aviation boycott against that country, imposed after Libya’s refusal to extradite suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
GOVERNMENT DISTANCES ITSELF
Israel’s Foreign Ministry refused official comments on the Libyan’s remarks, saying the trip should be seen in religious, not political terms.
But Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin pointed out that he had not been as “euphoric” as others about the pilgrimage in the first place. Still, he said, Israel must defend the freedom of access to all holy places.
Tourism Minister Uzi Baram, who had traveled to the Egyptian border to greet the pilgrims when they arrived Monday, said in the wake of the Libyans’ news conference that his office had cut off all contact with the group.
Meanwhile, the Palestine Liberation Organization said the pilgrimage was a premature step by Libya toward normalizing relations with Israel and a futile effort to curry favor with the United States.
In New York, Lester Pollack, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said that the umbrella group had been approached by Arab diplomats and others acting on behalf of Gadhafi.
The conference was invited to send a delegation to Libya, but turned it down because “such a visit would be inappropriate and unwarranted at this time,” Pollack said.
“At the same time as he (Gadhafi) reaches out, he continues to support terrorism and acquire weapons of mass destruction,” Pollack said.
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.
