In the presence of the film maker Vivienne Roumani-Denn
As a teenager in Jerusalem many decades ago, our favourite social game was called "The Elephant and the Jewish Question" the essence of the game was to link any word one might suggest with a Jewish connection even if that was totally tenuous. It was a way of entertainment yet now when I look back at it, I believe that in our psychological makeup we carry the responsibility not to look upon ourselves as individuals but as far as the Jewish collective and care about it. "Kol Yisrael Arevim ze Laze" the dictum which reminds us daily of our collective responsibility to our brethren has become a second nature for us (and was incidentally the official theme of this year's Yom Ha-Atzmaout. This when something dramatic or worrying happens somewhere in the world our first instinct is to find out what actually happens or to the Jews in that place - after all we are members of the same extended family. When all our eyes are turned to Libya and to Khadaffi , his sons and grandchildren we wish to know what happened to the Jews in Libya.
An interesting interview was given about the fate and the history of the Jews of Libya by Dr Joseph Maimon, an electrical engineer who was thrown out of Libya in 67 at the breakout of the 6 days War.
The humiliation of the Arab shameful defeat in that war resulted in pogroms: Jewish shops in the central square in Tripoli were burnt. Jews were afraid to leave their houses knowing that they would be locked and attacked by their neighbours. They could not even go to buy bread or milk. In the 42 days that they were locked in their houses, they were often helped by Italians who were still living in Libya. The same Arabs who were colleagues at work until 67 became foes. Libya announced that they would create camps to gather Jews in then and provide them protection. The first families which left for the camp, one of which families was the Luzon family were murdered as soon as they arrived at the camp. Libya wanted to get rid of their Jews. England and France refused to give their refuge but Italy accepted them. It was relatively easy to integrate in Italy as they spoke Italian.
Every Jew who was allowed to leave could take with them one suitcase of 20kg and the sum of £20. In Italy they were put into refuge camps. All their possessions remained in Libya: shops, factories, property. It amounted to the fortune.
When this issue was raised at one point Khadaffi himself declared that he would compensate those who left behind all that they possessed in his country and even signed a .... Since then nothing of course happened. When Khadaffi visited Italy, Libyan Jews approached him to remind him of this undertaking. Israeli government did not do anything in the matter and there is of course the question of lack of meticulous documentation.
Now, that Palestinians are coming to Israel with demands of compensation for their lost property - this is the right time for the Israeli government in any negations of the kind to raise the topic of Jews from Libya and other Arab countries like Iraq who have left all their houses and fortunes in the countries where their Jewish ancestors lived at time thousands of years.

The film "The Last Jews of Libya" is the last document of a community which is no longer there. In all the news about Libya, it is forgotten that a thriving and ancient community of 36,000 Jews lived there at the end of World War II. Not a single Jew lives there today.
The Last Jews of Libya documents the final decades of the community through the lives of the Roumani family. A tale of war, cultural dislocation, and one Libyan family's perseverance, this 50-minute film traces the story of the Roumanis of Benghazi from Turkish Ottoman rule, through the age of Mussolini and Hitler, to the final destruction and dispersal of Libya's Jews in the face of Arab nationalism.
In the near future when the world's eye is turned to the question of Palestinian refugees, let us take this opportunity and remind ourselves and others about the plight of hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees who were all led to normal lives by the state of Israel.