My Family, Libya and the demise of Gadaffi

Today, I had an article published in the 'Mail on Sunday' about the story of my Grandfather and Father, who originally came from Tripoli. I also wrote about the demise of Gadaffi.

You can read it here

Alternatively, see below:

I wished my Grandfather had been alive to see the demise of Gadaffi. He had been forced to leave Libya - and, as an Italian Jew - went to Rome.  He had planned to go back to Tripoli, once the pogroms had subsided, but Gadaffi took power in 1969 and all Jewish businesses and properties were seized by the new regime.  He didn't have a house or business to return to.  In fact, apart from oil money, Gadaffi had bought loyalty by giving his supporters all the property seized from the Jews and Italians.

I don't think he would have ever imagined that he would have a son who would marry an English woman or have a British Grandson who would become an MP. For me its a strange feeling. I love Britain, was born here and would never live anywhere else, but I feel that I am also a deep concoction of Jewish and Italian from Libya. I have always wanted to go to Tripoli, but very few Jews were allowed to go under Gadaffi, and those who had spent any time in Israel were banned. Its strange, but the recent events have really awakened my roots within me and I have gained a real sense of who I am and where my family have come from. It has been good to have conversations with my Father and his friends from Libya, to try and understand what it was like to live there in those difficult times.

My Grandfather who had a clothing business had seen Gadaffi coming.  Because of the worsening situation (pogroms were becoming a regular occurrence), he had sent my father Clement, to England in the late 1950s when he was just fifteen years old. He loved Great Britain.  During the end of the the Second World War, as the British arrived in Tripoli he had sold clothes to the the British army.  He would say "they were the only ones who paid on time". Its worth remembering that King Idris was installed as monarch of Libya in 1951 by the British in the aftermath of the Second World War when it gained independence from Italy and the old colonial name of Tripolitani disappeared. After a short stint in Rome, he joined my father in England, where he was to spend the rest of his life in North London

But, although Renato had contempt for Gadaffi, he hadn't always been a monster.  It seems incongruous now, but my father remembers the Colonel rapidly becoming a notorious and popular figure.  Before the military coup, Gaddafi used to walk down the famous Italian street in Tripoli: Corso Vittorio Emanuele (now known as Jadat Istiklal), shaking hands with passers-by (including my Dad), wearing a broad, serene smile and speaking loudly.  Gaddafi was articulate.  He nurtured dreams of Pan-Arabism.  He talked of a merger with Tunisia.  Because of the weakness of the (albeit benign) King Idriss, Gadaffi became known as 'the Liberator'.

In fact, it was even thought he might be sympathetic to Western interests.  So much so, that the Americans who controlled the large Wheelus Airbase - just outside Tripoli - did nothing to stop the coup d'etat against the King.

Despite losing everything, even my Grandfather - alongside most Libyans - never imagined that Gadaffi would impose a totalitarian regime, governed by his own variant of socialism, The Little Green Book', and hold power for forty-two years.

So Gadaffi has now gone and everyone is saying "What next... will it be a repeat of Iraq in the aftermath of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein?"

Before answering that question, it is worth getting one thing straight:  the yearning for freedom is deep in every human breast and should be nurtured and supported. The Libyan people deserve freedom, just as much as we do in the West.

For years, the 'realist school'  of Foreign Policy argued that the Middle East is not ready for democracy, that you can't drop democracy from a B52 bomber. Actually, you can. The NATO planes showed that - as they provided cover as the rebels advanced on Tripoli - though that is not the only way to do it.
Liberty is a human right. Sometimes it requires military intervention, other times it requires hearts and minds - so called soft power. Our foreign policy should be directed at supporting resistance groups to dictators, funding radio, TV stations, and the internet, in the same way the CIA did in the Cold War to undermine Communism. Where is the Middle East equivalent to Radio Free Europe?

What it doesn't require is appeasement. The free world must stop appeasing dictators. It may work in the short term but never in the long. The last government, some of our universities and businesses, lost their moral compass when it came to dealing with the Libyan regime. Whilst senior new Labour Government figures hob-nobbed with Gadaffi and his family, our academic institutions accepted millions in blood money, whilst companies rushed to Libya to sign commercial deals. The release of Lockerbie murderer Al Megrahi marked the high point (or low point) of this appeasement by the establishment. In some ways the political establishment's flirtation with Gadaffi was akin to those British upper-class aristocrats who appeased Hitler before the Second World War.

In having the courage to support intervention - and ignore the arm-chair generals who said we couldn't or shouldn't get involved - David Cameron did much to right these wrongs and regain Britain's moral compass.
But we need to go further and do what we can to ensure Al Megrahi returns to the UK to prison or spends the rest of his life rotting in a Libyan jail. Similarly, if Gadaffi is captured, there should be no 'exile' for Gadaffi and his family: only the international criminal court.

Of course, getting rid of a tyrant doesn't mean you have got rid of tyranny.  The experience of much of Iraq shows that the first steps after dictatorship are the most important. NATO and Western Governments need to continue to nurture genuinely democratic forces in post-Gadaffi Libya and help to rebuild the country. Any prospect of extreme Islamists/Al Qaeda et al must be ruthlessly crushed. However, the threat of Islamists should not be overstated - they are much less prevalent in Northern Africa than the rest of the Middle East.
To those who say it may take a few years, they may be right. But so did democracy in Japan and Germany after the Second World War.  And there is precedent: the Kurdistan Region in Northern Iraq.  Established as an autonomous region only in 2003, the Kurdish people suffered chemical genocide under Saddam Hussein and lived in terror for years under the Baathist regime.  I have visited the KRG twice, and in contrast to most other parts of Iraq, KRG is relatively terrorist-free, although there are continuous threats from Al Qaeda, and a small spate of suicide bombings in recent years.

Moreover, a real democracy has been created, albeit with some growing pains: one with property rights, religious tolerance, (Kurdistan is now a sanctuary for persecuted Christians from all over Iraq), the rule of law with proper justice and courts, a free press, and a vigorous political opposition.  The economy is booming. Universities too are flourishing, with new ones being built. Education is seen as the root to all success. Illiteracy has been cut by over thirty percent in just ten years.  Yes, they have had Western know-now and expertise, but the Kurdish leadership has shown a remarkable willingness to learn from the past, rather than live in it.  The new Libyan Transitional Council need to do the same.  Kurdistan is a model they should follow.

The signs are encouraging.  There have been reports that the Libyan Leader of the Opposition, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, invited the representative of Libyan Jews in the UK, Rafael Luzon, back to Tripoli, to take part in the political process.  If true, that would really herald a new beginning, not just for Libyan Jews, but the people of Libya as a whole.

My grandfather lost all his material possessions when he was forced to leave Libya. But at least he was able to get away and rebuild his life here - unlike the Libyan people who have been oppressed for so long.  Hopefully, their suffering is now coming to an end.

I look forward to visiting Tripoli when Gaddafi is gone and retracing my Grandfather's footsteps.