Reception and legacy of Muammar Gaddafi
[3] Gaddafi's domestic popularity stemmed from his overthrow of the monarchy, his removal of the Italian settlers and both American and British air bases from Libyan territory, and his redistribution of the country's land on a more equitable basis.
[4] Supporters have also applauded achievements in medical care, praising the universal free healthcare provided under the Gaddafist administration, with diseases like cholera and typhoid being contained and life expectancy raised.
Biographers Blundy and Lycett believed that during the first decade of Gaddafi's leadership, life for most Libyans "undoubtedly changed for the better" as material conditions and wealth drastically improved,[5] while Libyan studies specialist Lillian Craig Harris remarked that in the early years of his administration, Libya's "national wealth and international influence soared, and its national standard of living [had] risen dramatically".
[10] His opposition to Western governments earned him the respect of many in the Euro-American far right,[11] with the UK-based National Front, for instance, embracing aspects of the Third International Theory during the 1980s.
[12] His anti-Western stance also attracted praise from the far left; in 1971, the Soviet Union awarded him the Order of Lenin, although his mistrust of atheist Marxism-Leninism prevented him from attending the ceremony in Moscow.
[25] Libyan ambassador to Italy, Ammar Dhu, and military officer, Salih Bu Farwa, were allegedly killed for spreading rumors about Gaddafi having Jewish heritage from his mother's side.
[27][28][29] Gaddafi's government's treatment of non-Arab Libyans came in for criticism from human rights activists, with native Berbers, Italians, Jews, refugees, and foreign workers all facing persecution in Gaddafist Libya.
The political economist Yash Tandon stated that while Gaddafi was "probably the most controversial, and outrageously daring (and adventurous) challenger of the Empire" (i.e. Western powers), he had nevertheless been unable to escape the West's neo-colonial control over Libya.
[36] He also faced opposition from rival socialists such as Ba'athists and Marxists;[37] during the Civil War, he was criticized by both left-of-centre and right-of-centre governments for overseeing human rights abuses.
[9] For these critics, Gaddafi was "despotic, cruel, arrogant, vain and stupid,"[40] with Pargeter noting that "for many years, he came to be personified in the international media as a kind of super villain.
[51] Gaddafi loyalists then founded a new political party, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Libya; two of its members, Subah Mussa and Ahmed Ali, promoted the new venture by hijacking the Afriqiyah Airways Flight 209 in December 2016.
