Water Shortages Killed a Zionist Plan to Create a Jewish Homeland in Libya

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In early 1904, the President of the World Zionist Organization, Theodore Herzl, presented a proposal to the Italian King Victor Emanuel III to divert the Jewish migration  from Eastern Europe to Tripoli in Libya, so Jews can settle there and have an autonomous region under Italian laws and institutions.

Herzl did not take this step randomly but did so after discovering Italy's intentions to colonize Libya, said Dr Amin Abdullah Mahmoud in his book Jewish Settlement Projects From the French Revolution Until World War I.

But Herzl was shocked when he received a reply from the Italian king that his country could not provide support to the Zionist organization for this project because “Tripoli is home to others" and Italy had no authority over it.

It seems the Italian king opted not to make any binding commitment to the Zionist Organization for fear of revealing Italy's intentions to colonize Libya, which would have caused problems in its relations with Britain and France, as well as the Ottoman Empire, according to Mahmoud.

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