On
August 27, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen publicly said he and Libya’s now
sacked foreign minister had held a private meeting in the Italian capital Rome
the previous week, the first-ever alleged encounter between a top Libyan
diplomat and an Israeli regime official in history.
The next day, Libya’s Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah
fired Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush, (who claimed it was not an official
meeting but a swift coincidental interaction) and launched an investigation
into the reported meeting.
Mangoush’s whereabouts is now unknown following the uproar
in Libya after news emerged of the exchange late last week.
Dbeibah also touched on the ongoing probe about the
incident, saying, “Regardless of good or bad intentions, together we (the Libyan
people) will learn the details of what happened in Rome through the ongoing
investigation.”
Under a
1957 law in Libya, it is illegal to normalize ties with the occupation regime
of Israel. Libya has long been hostile toward the Israeli regime and a staunch
supporter of the Palestinians.
During a televised ministerial meeting of the Libyan
Government of National Unity, Prime Minister Dbeibah said his government
completely rejects any form of normalization with Israel.
"Before
I assumed this mission, (I affirm) our categorical and complete rejection of
any form of normalization, and our complete bias towards the Palestinian people
and their just cause,” Dbeibah told his ministers.
The Premier has also accepted responsibility for the foreign
minister’s illegal interaction, in spite of being unaware of the reported
secret gathering, saying, “Despite everything that happened to our people, they
still cling to their principles and identity. In fact, from this place, I bear
full responsibility for this government, regardless of who made mistakes in it
and who was responsible.”
“Long live Libya, long live its people, long live Palestine,
and long live the Palestinian cause in our hearts,” he added.
On Tuesday, Libya’s parliament also condemned the meeting,
while voicing opposition to any attempt toward any level of normalization with
Israel, with the parliament speaker denouncing any contacts with the regime and
emphasizing Libya’s support for the Palestinians.
Aguila Saleh Issa added that no one is allowed to undermine
the Palestine struggle for freedom, and everyone should work on establishing a
Palestinian state with occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital.
In a sign of how just sensitive the news was for the Libyan
public, the reported meeting ignited angry street protests in several Libyan
cities, including mass rallies in the capital Tripoli, with demonstrations
strongly condemning Israel and protesters chanting slogans in support of the
Palestinians.
This, in turn, prompted the suspended foreign minister
Mangoush to reportedly flee to Turkey for fear of her safety. Her exact
whereabouts remain unknown.
Israeli
news reports suggest that the regime’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was
furious with his foreign minister for making the news public before informing
him.
Reports
also suggest the United States is fuming about the Israeli announcement of the
reported meeting amid the wave of angry reactions from Libya.
Both Israel and the US are reportedly said to have hoped the
private meeting could have materialized into some type of PR boost for Israel
and President Biden, ahead of the 2024 US presidential election with a view to
some kind of normalization agenda between Israel and Libya.
The response from the Libyan people and the government
officials since the news broke out suggests that no such measure will
materialize in the foreseeable future.
Israel is finding itself isolated in West Asia after the
so-called Abraham Accords which saw the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco normalizing
ties with Israel when Donald Trump was at the White House.
While Sudan formally joined the so-called Abraham Accords,
relations between Sudan and the occupation regime have been frozen because of
domestic opposition and political instability.
Three years later, Israel had widely hoped to expand on the so-called Abraham
Accords by normalizing ties with many more states in West Asia and Africa,
something that has yet to transpire.
Palestinians have said the Abraham Accords have emboldened
Israel in its brutal crackdown in the occupied territories, describing the deal
as a stab in the back for the Palestinian cause.
According
to the United Nations, Israeli forces have killed more than 200 Palestinians so
far this year, many of them women and children, the highest annual death toll
since the UN began keeping records in 2005.
But 2023 has yet to end and Israeli aggression against the
Palestinians continues to expand, particularly the almost daily pre-dawn heavy
military invasions in the occupied West Bank cities, towns and villages that
have been condemned by human rights groups as “merciless”.
On Friday, the regime's military raided several cities in
the occupied West Bank, killing an innocent teacher in the village of Aqaba,
while injuring and arresting many others, including family members of residents
that Israel claims are wanted.
Israel is being governed by one of the most fascist regimes
in the entity’s short history. And while former Israeli rulers committed similar war crimes
against the Palestinians, observers say the new ministers in Netanyahu’s
cabinet are not even trying to hide their brutal and illegal practices, unlike
previous ones who tried to cover them up. Netanyahu’s cabinet openly
boasts about killing Palestinian civilians.
This has added extra pressure on any regional state's
official pondering the idea of some kind of diplomatic normalization and being
seen warming up to the new fanatical criminal gang in charge of the occupied
Palestinian territories.
