African Hebrew Israelites in Israel

[2] A number of the African Hebrew Israelites were illegal immigrants in Israel and were thus deported, prompting allegations from the community that the Israeli government's conduct against them was racist.

Many of the community's beliefs were developed on the basis of revelations experienced by African-American steel worker Ben Carter, who claimed that the angel Gabriel had called on him to return his people—the "true" Children of Israel—to what is often referred to as the Holy Land in the Abrahamic religions.

Born a Baptist Christian, Carter later changed his name to Ben Ammi Ben-Israel (Hebrew: בן עמי בן-ישראל) and began rallying other African Americans to his cause.

He rejected Judaism and Christianity, but asserted that the Jewish Bible was still divine and claimed that Abraham and Moses were Black people, while also perceiving Jesus as one of many messiahs.

Some of Carter's statements and the community's beliefs have led to accusations of antisemitism against them: he alleged that there was an international Jewish conspiracy through which the Israeli government maintained control over the Holy Land.

In his early twenties Carter was given the name Ben Ammi by Rabbi Reuben of the Chicago Congregation of Ethiopian Hebrews (Not Beta Israel).

[5] According to Ben Ammi, in 1966, at the age of 27, he had a vision in which the Archangel Gabriel[6] called him to take his people, African Americans, back to the Holy Land of Israel.

From these figures and their teachings, they have incorporated elements of black separatism as well as the doctrine which advocates the repatriation of the African Diaspora to its ancestral lands in a "return to Africa", of which they consider Israel to be a part.

One component was the hardship which black community members faced within America as well as within American culture, especially in Chicago in the 1960s, at the height of the Civil rights movement.

[18] In 1981, a six-person Black Americans to Support Israel Committee delegation assessed all aspects of the treatment of the community and concluded that racism was not the cause of its problems.

While they value non-violence, the primary motive for their veganism appears to be health-based: mirroring a Rabbinic tradition, they argue that meat-eating is linked to humanity's fallen state, and must be overcome to attain righteousness.

[31] Even though they reject the religious forms of both Judaism and Christianity, the Black Hebrews maintain the belief in the divine inspiration of the Tanakh, and they also value the New Testament as a record of the words of Yeshuah, one man in an ongoing line of 'messiahs' who were sent by God to keep the people of Israel in the ways of righteousness.

Ben Ammi claims that "the Law and the Prophets...are the light; they are the essence of what is required to set man on the path and show him the way back to his Maker.

"[33] However, the group rejects the traditions of Rabbinic Judaism, including the Talmud, based on its belief that they are inauthentic as opposed to the Hebrew religion.

"[35] The enslavement of black Africans is seen as punishment for straying from the righteous path[36] and he cites an "oral tradition that our people were cursed by God for violating His laws, statutes and commandments.

[38] The "Euro-gentile" establishment hatched "a deliberate scheme to conceal the truth that ancient Hebrews were Black" and it also "perpetuated the white Jesus deception".

[39] In an attempt to overcome the history of slavery in the United States, Ammi argues that it is essential to "reexamine and redefine all things...we must question every facet of existence under Euro-gentile dominion.

"[40] The ability to name and classify the word and social concept which Ammi calls "The Power to Define", which is in the wrong hands, is "one of the greatest weapons that can be used to control men and nations," is the key to salvation from past oppression.

[46] Ammi does not believe in the existence of an afterlife; he prefers to focus on life on earth: "Heaven is the reality of the righteous as they live, not a place for spirits after death.

Since then, the group has become a valuable part of both the Dimona community and the wider Israeli society and it has also pursued integration in ways such as volunteering to serve in the IDF.

[34] In 2011, the Georgia General Assembly passed a resolution which "recognize(s) the Hebrew Israelite Community for its service to the nation of Israel and commends their 40 years of history.

"[52] In response to concerns about anti-Jewish prejudice and stereotyping that arose during its formative years in Israel, community leader Prince Immanuel Ben Yehuda simply states that they have "grown up."

"[53] In August 2008, the Village of Peace received a visit from Israel's president, Shimon Peres, who told the Hebrew Israelites "Your community is beloved in Israel...You give the country happiness and song and hope for a better world"[54] And in March, 2012, during the community's annual "New World Passover" celebration in honor of their historic "exodus" from America in 1967, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed appreciation for "the cooperative society that is working towards the inclusion of the Hebrew Israelite community in Israeli society at large," and he also declared that their experience in the land is "an integral part of the Israeli experience.

It specializes in "providing technical assistance, training and consultancy in essential areas... such as health, agriculture, rural development, environmental maintenance and related fields."