Israel govt ask 45 Black Hebrew Israelites to Leave Country in 60 Days

The community started to come together in the 1960s in Chicago, subscribing to a theology promulgated by Ben Carter, a Black Baptist who changed his name to Ben Ammi Ben-Israel

Forty-five members of the Black Hebrew Israelite community recently received letters from the Interior Ministry ordering them to leave the country within 60 days, after they had sought to regularize their residency status in Israel. Many of them have lived in Israel without any legal status for more than 20 years – including people who were born in Israel.

Dozens of other members of the community have submitted similar requests that are still being examined, but given that all of the status-less community members have similar characteristics, they aren’t expecting the decision on their applications will be any

According to the Interior Ministry’s Population and Immigration Authority, the community, often referred to as “Black Hebrews,” comprises some 2,000 people who live primarily in Dimona, though there are small communities in Yeruham, Mitzpeh Ramon, Arad, Tel Aviv and Tiberias. The community claims they are far more numerous. The community started to come together in the 1960s in Chicago, subscribing to a theology promulgated by Ben Carter, a Black Baptist who changed his name to Ben Ammi Ben-Israel.

While they started settling in Israel in the late 1960s, it was only during the late ‘90s that the state began granting them residency status. The community gave state authorities a list of all community members. Those who had been in Israel at least a decade got a work permit, which then became temporary residency, then permanent residency and then, at times, citizenship. In 2003, the remainder of the existing community were granted permanent residency. Those who served in the IDF could also obtain citizenship for themselves and their families without giving up their U.S. citizenship.

Today the community is comprised of citizens, residents and those with no status – the latter being people who were not on the list submitted to the state at the end of the 1990s, and their children. Rafael, who is coordinating efforts to get these people officially recognized, said there are more than 100 people without status, while the state’s immigration agency says there are only a few dozen. Rafael says that four years ago he submitted to the Interior Ministry a list of the community members without legal status, after he appealed to the agency on their behalf. “A few years passed and they didn’t do anything with it, until I approached them again last year and they asked me to resubmit the list.”n a written response, the Population and Immigration Authority said that community members in Dimona received permanent residency status for humanitarian reasons 17 years ago by decision of the then interior minister, and not in the framework of any particular law. “When the decision was made and their status in Israel was regularized, a list was drawn up of community members and their leaders, and whoever was on it indeed became a permanent resident. Applications made years afterward are examined on a case-by-case basis, and anyone asked to leave has in practice been living in Israel illegally for many years.”