Libyan leader Gadhafi in encounter with Jewish representatives 

A delegation of Libyan Jews living in Italy has met with Colonel Muammar Gadhafi, the Libyan leader. The group was invited by the Libyan government to forge ties and determine compensation for abandoned Jewish communal property in Libya. The meeting came several months after Libya declared it would compensate Jews that were expelled from the country following the 1967 Six Day War. Leone Paserman, president of Rome’s Jewish community, called the trip “an important opening” and said the Libyan leader had welcomed the delegation with full honors, calling them “brothers of Libya.” Thousands of Jews fled to Italy in the wake of anti-Semitic violence in Libya following the 1967 war, leaving behind their homes and most possessions. Today, Jews of Libyan origin make up more than one-third of the Jewish community in Rome.