JERUSALEM (JTA) — Muammar Gaddafi’s mother was Jewish, the late Libyan leader’s chief of protocol told an Arabic newspaper.

Nuri al-Samara told the daily Al-Hayat that Gaddafi’s mother was Jewish, the Israeli daily Maariv reported on its NRG news website. At 18 she married a Muslim man and converted, according to reports.

Last year, a 76-year-old Jewish resident of the Israeli city Netanya told Maariv that Gaddafi was her cousin.

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“My grandmother converted to Islam but never forgot her roots,” Gita Boaron told Maariv. “She would come to visit us, give my mother money and say ‘give to the synagogue, donate to the Jews.'”