Jewish-Muslim Relations in Libya · 187not interested in developments outside its narrow boundaries, but the
new leadership hoped to take advantage of broadening the scope of in-
terests to include developments in the Arab and Muslim worlds. For that
reason there was extensive reporting in the Tripolitan Arab press on the
eve of the November 1945 riots on the situation in Palestine, stating that
the partition plan there would cause the liquidation of Jewish life in Arab
lands. There was also a widespread reporting on the 2 November Balfour
Day demonstrations in Cairo and Alexandria, which were accompanied
by violence, robbery, and the arson of synagogues.^42 This was the begin-
ning of having national issues, including the Arab-Israeli conflict, take
center stage in the attention of the masses in Libya.
The Jewish community had usually kept a neutral stand during the
struggle over the political future of Libya. Most Jews, though, hoped that
Italian rule would resume, because they regarded the period of Italian
rule as very comfortable, secure, and flourishing, despite the calamities
of WWII. Still, there were some expressions of support for Libyan na-
tionalism in the community, mainly from official representatives of the
community.^43
The British wanted to use education in order to bolster Libyan na-
tionalism toward the establishment of an independent Arab Libyan
state. Their goal was to create a national education system for all the
inhabitants of Libya, with the exception of the Italian citizens, based on
the Arab educational system. This decision meant the liquidation of a
separate Jewish-Hebrew education within the framework of state edu-
cation.^44 The British claimed that the Jews should be integrated in the
Arab society and that in Cyrenaica they should be “Sanusis of the Mo-
saic Religion.” Still, the British agreed that Jews would be allowed eight
out of thirty-four hours a week for Jewish studies. Arab educators from
Palestine were invited to plan the Arab education system of Libya. One
result of this was the increased awareness by the local Arab population
of developments in Palestine. The British authorities refused to provide
state funding for separate Jewish schools, on the grounds that Hebrew,
contrary to Arabic and Italian, was not an official language in Libya. As
a result, the Jews, who wanted to preserve their unique identity, decided
to get communal and external funding for their schools, mainly from AIU
and the American Joint Distribution Committee (AJDC), and operate a
private educational system in order to maintain its independence. In late
1945, because of the riots and the increase of Arab nationalism, Jewish