After decades of struggle for a place in Israel, dozens of Black Hebrews face threat of deportation
The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem made their way to Israel from the United States in the 1960s
For two years, Toveet Israel and dozens of other residents of the Village of Peace have lived in fear.
Dimona, a city on the edge of the nation of Israel’s Negev Desert, has been her home for 24 years. Her eight children were born here and know no other country. Now, she and 44 other undocumented members of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem face deportation.
Receiving the order to leave two years ago was a “moment of disbelief” for Israel, 53. “I feel like the government has been merciless to me and my children,” she said.
The Black Hebrews, as the spiritual community's members are commonly known, first made their way to Israel from the United States in the 1960s. While members do not consider themselves Jewish, they claim an ancestral connection to Israel.
Around 3,000 Black Hebrews live in remote, hardscrabble towns in southern Israel. The Village of Peace, a cluster of low-slung buildings surrounded by vegetable patches and immaculate gardens in Dimona, is the community’s epicenter.
Over the decades, the Black Hebrews have made gradual inroads into Israeli society. After years of bureaucratic wrangling, about 500 members hold Israeli citizenship, and most of the rest have permanent residency.
But about 130 have no formal status and now face deportation. Some don’t have foreign passports and say they have spent their entire adult lives in Israel and have nowhere to go.
The community’s long fight to secure its status shines a light on Israel’s strict immigration policy, which grants people it considers Jewish automatic citizenship but limits entry to others who don’t fall under its definition.
The African Hebrew Israelites are one of a constellation of Black religious groups in the U.S. that emerged in the late 19th and 20th centuries and encompass a wide spectrum of Christian and Jewish-inspired beliefs.
Some fringe Black Hebrew groups in the U.S. hold extremist or antisemitic views, according to civil rights groups ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The community in Dimona does not espouse such beliefs.
Reference: U Tube: The Independent
Articles-Latest
- Using Vibrational Aromatherapy In Treatment - 2
- Taliban step up security ahead of supreme leader’s Kandahar mosque visit on Eid
- Using Vibrational Aromatherapy In Treatment
- The BI-Gendered God-She-male Gods & The Roots of Christianity
- Geometry and Myth-She-Male Gods & the Roots of Christianity
- Muslim Council Demands Investigation Into Islamophobia in the Conservative Party
- What does the Bible say about homosexuality? Well, for starters, Jesus wasn’t a homophobe
- King Charles attends Easter service, providing a glimpse of the monarch after cancer diagnosis
- We must stand up to religious extremism in the UK before it tears us apart,’ writes Frederick Chedam
- Trump compares himself to Jesus Christ – again
- Pope makes last-minute decision not to deliver Palm Sunday Mass homily
- New York City's mayor gets baptized in jail by Rev. Al Sharpton on Good Friday
- Pope Francis calls predecessor Benedict a key transitional figure
- Lawyers hit out at Vatican’s ‘trial of the century’ after Pope secretly changes law four times
- What we know about the killing of Detroit synagogue leader Samatha Woll
- Sodomy and theology: the feverish birth of the King James Bible
- Africa's Catholic hierarchy refuses same-sex blessings, says such unions are contrary to God's will
- After decades of struggle for a place in Israel, dozens of Black Hebrews face threat of deportation
- Purgatory in the Bible
- Pope’s new ruling on blessings for same-sex couples does not change Catholic teaching - bishop
Articles-Most Read
- Home
- Let There Be Light
- Plants that feel and Speak
- The Singing Forest
- The Singing Forest-2
- Introduction
- Meditation
- Using Essential Oils for Spiritual Connection
- Heaven Scent
- Plants that Feel and Speak-2
- Purification
- Making the Spiritual Connection
- Anointing
- The Sanctity of Plants
- Essential Oils: The unseen Energies
- The Aroma Of Worship - Introduction
- The Aroma Of Worship-Foreward
- Methods Of Use
- Spiritual Blending
- Handling and Storage