Omar Mukhtar
Even if Benghazi city accepted the Italians and some members (mainly Jews) of the local community collaborated with the Italian government, in the interior nearly half the local population of Cyrenaica under the leadership of Omar Mukhtar resisted the Italian occupation. Many local arabs -under the Senussi leadership- suffered oppression, particularly from the fascist dictator Mussolini in the late 1920s.