Hebrew Israelites celebrate green light for temporary residence, but fight continues
State tells 27 members of southern Israeli community they can apply for 2-year visas, amid legal battle to secure permanent residence for them and dozens more
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
Three and a half years after over 50 African Hebrew Israelites from the southern Israel city of Dimona received deportation notices, 43 have received temporary residence, 16 of them with a promise of permanent residence in 2027.
Temporary visas, which require annual renewal, grant the rights of permanent residency excluding the right to vote.
Last week, the community held a party to celebrate.
Visas for the first 16 were announced in June 2023, with a promise of permanent residency four years later.
In recent weeks, another 27 have been told they will get temporary visas for two years, with no word on what would happen when that period ends.
The group mainly comprises minors and young people born in Israel. The family heads entered Israel from the US as tourists and remained in the country illegally after their permitted three-month stay expired.
The 2,500-strong community believes it is descended from an ancient Israelite tribe. While it observes many Jewish laws, it is not recognized as Jewish by Israel’s religious authorities.
Members began arriving in Israel in 1969, following the late Ben Carter, a Chicago steelworker who renamed himself Ben Ammi Ben Israel and claimed to be God’s representative on earth.
In 2003, then-interior minister Avraham Poraz offered permanent residency to community members who had temporary resident status and had been living in Israel for over a decade.
According to the community, 135 individuals fell through the net, remaining stateless.
In 2015, over 50 applied for permanent residency after interior minister at the time (now foreign minister), Gideon Sa’ar, indicated he would solve the problems. They heard nothing until they received deportation notices in 2021.
The community’s lawyers appealed, securing a court injunction against deportation.
In February 2023, the court threw the issue back to the Interior Ministry for resolution. The judgment said it was “clear” that many community members had “fallen through the cracks,” and that a “comprehensive systemic solution” was required.
Yafit Weisbuch, who has represented the community for four years and is working to secure permanent residency for several more dozen Hebrews from the original group of 135, has asked the courts to order that all her clients be given permanent residency immediately, and to scrap the state’s “illogical” distinction between the two groups authorized to receive temporary visas.
She is still waiting for an answer about one woman. Three applications have been rejected, and, said Weisbuch, the authorities “forgot” about two children. The remainder had dropped out of the legal proceedings.
It is a “Sisyphean” task, she said, adding that Population and Immigration Authority bureaucrats “drive us mad” with bureaucratic hurdles, and it remained unclear when her clients would be issued identity cards. Applicants have been asked to provide US passports and birth certificates, which many do not have, and even US police records going back decades.
In one case, a woman received permanent residency 22 years ago, but her son, then a small child, did not. In contrast, her subsequent daughter received the status.
In another case, a woman and three of her four children received temporary status, but not the fourth child, who left a year ago and now wants to return.
The community participates fully in local life and campaigns on behalf of Israel. Children attend local state schools and most eligible youngsters serve in the IDF.
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