182 · Rachel Simon
For fifteen years, from early 1952 until June 1967, Jews enjoyed relative
security in Libya. The last anti-Jewish attack took place on 5 June 1967,
when the Six Day War broke out between Israel and its Arab neighbors.^30
This attack did not come as a surprise. Before the war, the Muslim popu-
lation was incited by mosque preachers to join the anti-Israeli jihad. The
anti-Zionist propaganda in the media was strong, and a week of identi-
fication with Palestine was planned to start on 5 June. The Jewish com-
munity announced its neutral stand regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict,
but this declaration did not prevent the anti-Jewish outburst on the first
day of the war. By then, most Libyan Jews were scattered in the new,
religiously mixed neighborhoods of Tripoli, deprived of any self-defense
or even communal organization and lacking any political affiliation. Fol-
lowing a few hours of Muslim rioting in the streets of Tripoli, military
forces intervened. Aiming to protect the Jews, the army evacuated them
to a military camp in the outskirts of Tripoli. Within a few days the com-
munity and the authorities reached an agreement to temporarily evacu-
ate the Jews from Libya, and tempers calmed down. A hasty departure to
Italy under military guard took place with the refugees being allowed to
take with them only light personal equipment and £20 per person. Most
of the community escaped in this manner and only about one hundred
Jews remained. Later on, Jews were allowed to take out larger amounts
of capital, and some returned to Libya briefly, mainly to liquidate their
businesses. The number of Jews gradually decreased, and only a few in-
dividuals remained in the 1980s.
During the period under review, when protection by the authorities
was not sufficient, there were several attempts by Jews, mainly in the
Tripoli area, to organize self-defense. During the Ottoman period this de-
fense was mainly in the hands of a group of Jewish strongmen (biryonim)
who cast fear over those threatening vulnerable Jews, mainly traders,
peddlers, and women.^31 This group, headed by a chief and his deputy,
used to compete in wrestling matches every Saturday afternoon on the
Tripoli city wall adjacent to the Jewish quarters. In 1850, the Ottoman au-
thorities forbade these matches due to an accident that took place during
their course and even demanded the dismantling of the group. By then,
the Ottoman authorities increased their involvement in introducing law
and order and the regime opposed the existence of independent security
forces that were not under its direct command.
A different kind of defense was organized at the end of the Ottoman