(JTA) — Libya will allow two Italian Jewish women to visit their ancestral homes.
Al Hayat, a Saudi-owned daily based in London, reported that Libya granted permission for the trips during an official visit this week by Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi to Italy.
Gaddafi, long a pariah in the West, in recent years has traded concessions and humanitarian gestures for signs of acceptance from major industrial nations.
Most of Libya’s ancient Jewish community fled in 1967, when persecution of Jews in Arab nations intensified following Israel’s Six-Day War victory.
