David Gerbi gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in Tripoli, Libya, Monday, Oct. 3, 2011. A Libyan Jewish man who returned from exile to try to restore Tripoli's main synagogue says he has been blocked from the building a day after knocking down the wall that was blocking its entrance. Gerbi says he went to clean garbage from the synagogue on Monday only to be told by men at the scene that they had warnings he would be targeted by violence. Gerbi, who fled with his family to Italy in 1967, says he was surprised because he had permission from the local sheik. (AP Photo/Abdel Magid al-Fergany)
David Gerbi gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in Tripoli, Libya, Monday, Oct. 3, 2011. A Libyan Jewish man who returned from exile to try to restore Tripoli's main synagogue says he has been blocked from the building a day after knocking down the wall that was blocking its entrance. Gerbi says he went to clean garbage from the synagogue on Monday only to be told by men at the scene that they had warnings he would be targeted by violence. Gerbi, who fled with his family to Italy in 1967, says he was surprised because he had permission from the local sheik. (AP Photo/Abdel Magid al-Fergany)
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) ? A Libyan Jewish man who returned from exile was blocked from entering Tripoli's main synagogue Monday, dashing his hopes of restoring the house of worship after decades of decay.
David Gerbi, who has spent most of his life in Italy, said he went to clean garbage from the synagogue on Monday, a day after he broke through the entrance with a sledgehammer to great fanfare. Men at the scene told him, however, that they had warnings he could be a target of violence, and that he should stop his efforts.
Gerbi, who fled with his family to Italy in 1967, said he was surprised because he had permission from the local sheik. Gerbi's colleague Richard Peters said several men armed with assault rifles later appeared to guard the building, although none was visible later Monday.
Breaking down in tears, Gerbi said Libya needs to decide whether it will be a racist country or a democratic one.
It was not clear who was ultimately behind the warnings of violence against Gerbi or whether the armed men who passed along the message did so on behalf of Libya's new rulers.
The head of the National Transitional Council that is governing the country was dismissive of the issue when asked about it at a news conference, saying it was too early to worry about rebuilding a synagogue when revolutionary forces were still fighting supporters of fugitive leader Moammar Gadhafi.
"This matter is premature and we have not decided anything in this regard," Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said. "Everyone who holds Libyan nationality has the right to enjoy all rights, provided that he has no other nationality but Libyan."
On Sunday, Gerbi took a sledgehammer to a concrete wall and entered the crumbling Dar al-Bishi synagogue, which has been filled with decades of garbage since Gadhafi expelled Libya's small Jewish community early in his rule.
He and a team of helpers carted in brooms, rakes and plastic buckets and planned to start cleaning out the debris on Monday.
The 56-year-old psychoanalyst appealed to the new leadership to set an example of tolerance, saying that while Gadhafi "wanted to eliminate the diversity, they need to include the diversity."
Gerbi said he had received permission to restore the synagogue from the neighborhood sheik, but that permission apparently had been withdrawn.
Gerbi's family fled to Rome in 1967, when Arab anger was rising over the war in which Israel captured large swaths of territory from Jordan, Syria and Egypt. Two years later, Gadhafi expelled the rest of Libya's Jewish community, which at its peak numbered about 37,000.
Gerbi returned to his homeland this summer to join the rebellion that ousted Gadhafi, helping with strategy and psychological treatment.
He said his fellow rebels called him the "revolutionary Jew" and that he was thrilled when he rode into the capital with fighters from the western mountains as Tripoli fell in late August.
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