Libya: 'We don't allow occupiers in'

JPost reporter Rafael D. Frankel is traveling with the Breaking the Ice expedition from Jerusalem to Tripoli.

By Rafael D. Frankel

EGYPT-LIBYA BORDER - History was thwarted early Wednesday morning when a peace mission making its way across the Sahara Desert was refused entry into Libya due to the participation of three Israelis who were flatly denied entrance at the border.

Most of the group of people from around the world, including four Americans, were welcome in Libya, a special representative of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi told the mission as it stood on Libyan soil, just five meters from the formal border crossing. But not the Israelis.

"Israel does not exist as a country, it is Palestine. We don't allow occupiers into our country," the official said. "Now I order you all to leave Libya."

Earlier, the group had decided it would not cross into Libya unless everyone was allowed in.

After being denied, the nine participants voted to stay through the night at the border and see if diplomacy and their message of goodwill to all peoples would gain them admission. As of Wednesday afternoon it appeared those efforts had failed and the group was considering its options.

After renouncing his intentions to develop weapons of mass destruction in December 2003, Gaddafi was seen to be realigning his country with the international community after years of isolation, following direct ties to terrorist activities.

Until the last minute, the group had not received word from Libyan officials as to whether it would be permitted inside the country and the participants and 16-member support staff and media contingent actually waited on Libyan soil for about four hours Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning for a decision from Libyan border control.

After initially being refused, an appeal was made to high- ranking officials in Tripoli. It was that appeal which led to the words from the government official.

During the overnight hours on the Libyan side of the border, the group, including the Israelis, was received warmly by the border guards themselves who provided complimentary coffee and hot sandwiches. The shopkeeper, a man from Tunis, even wished the group a "good morning" in Hebrew.

The three Israelis, Gil Fogiel, Galit Oren and group organizer Heskel Nathaniel shook hands and chatted with the border guards in English and Arabic and the guards, including two military colonels, said they hoped the three would gain entrance.

"It's another huge example of the difference between the people and the government," Nathaniel said. "I got the feeling that the people would have taken us home with them."

At the last moment, before pulling up to Libyan border, the group turned on the radio and was greeted by the 8 p.m. news on Israel's Reshet Gimmel, which came through loud and clear despite the distance across the sea. Following the news, the song With a Little Bit of Luck from the musical My Fair Lady came on. "It's a sign," Oren said at the time. "Even the songs are helping us along."

During the final walk up to the Libyan border, the group's members linked arms as the two Magirus-Deutz fire trucks and support jeep which brought them 3,500 kilometers to this point followed behind them. They sang Give Peace a Chance and We Are the World on the border approach, while curious Egyptian soldiers stood at the side of the road with puzzled smiles.

The ride to the border from the Egyptian town of Sullum was raucous as group members downed whiskey shots to celebrate what they hoped would be the closing chapter of their trek. As Palestinian Muhammad Azzam Alarjah played his drum, they sang and placed bets on whether they would gain entrance to Libya - the Arab participants betting "no" and the Israelis wagering "yes."

Pressed into service when the regular driver's knees gave out, New York Fire Department Cpt. Daniel Patrick Sheridan, one of the two Americans in the group, danced as he drove the 1962 double- clutch truck the final meters in Egypt.

On the roof of his truck, former Israel Air Force Phantom fighter-pilot and POW Gil Fogiel struck a statuesque pose with his chest out and head high as cameramen and the support staff joined him in singing The Ride of the Valkyries. Camel herders waved at the truck and Fogiel returned the gesture as the convoy, nicknamed after Columbus's ships by Sheridan "the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria," drove by.

Earlier in the day, Fogiel said the prospect of Israelis entering Libya was "a chance to change the course of thinking and from now on produce a new way." Due to their history, Israelis are a skeptical people, he said. "But if you stay skeptical all the time nothing will ever change, so with this step we're trying to break conventional thought."

Oren said she felt a responsibility to represent the "best side" of Israelis. "I want to come with open hands and an open heart... to open the path for others to follow," she said. "I feel very honored, I still don't see myself as so powerful that we are making a difference, but if we do it we can be the pioneers of change," she said.

Though he was traveling with the group in a support role, Nathaniel said he felt a responsibility in representing Israel which made him nervous.

"I wouldn't do it on my own without others with me," he said. "But I feel confident and I feel confident that Latif [Yahia] is taking care of us." Yahia, a former body double for Saddam Hussein's son Uday, took on the job of shepherding the group through numerous hoops at the border, including paying baksheesh to the guards on the Egyptian side to process the group quickly.

On the Libyan side he and Alarjah worked tirelessly with Libyan officials in attempting to move the group through. But even his efforts and the spirit of the peace mission could not overcome the intransigence of the Libyan government.

©2006 The Jerusalem Post