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