Israel to Expel Black Hebrews

TEL AVIV —  Israel’s Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the government can expel 45 American-born members of the Black Hebrew cult for overstaying their visas.

Interior Ministry spokesman Yitzhak Agassi said they will be deported to the United States in the next few days. The ministry issued the order in April for the first expulsion of members of the controversial community.

Agassi said that many others among the estimated 1,500 Black Hebrews are living in Israel illegally and also will be deported.

“Our policy is like that of any other country: We expel illegal aliens,” he said.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Robert Hall, reached by telephone, declined comment on the court ruling.

Jacques Amir, mayor of the Negev desert town of Dimona where most of the cult members live, demanded Wednesday that the government take a clear stand against the community.

He said the Black Hebrews have made themselves “a state within a state” by living according to their own rules, maintaining independent institutions and refusing to recognize the official school or health systems.

Arrived in 1969

Members of the cult claim direct lineage to the biblical Israelites. They began arriving here in small groups in 1969, led by a former Chicago bus driver who calls himself Ben-Ami Carter the Prince of Peace.

The court ruled in 1972 that Black Hebrews were not Jews and thus not eligible for automatic citizenship under the Law of Return. Israel hesitated to expel them, however, fearing the action would hurt its relations with black African countries and cause trouble between American Jews and blacks.

In rejecting the appeal by the 45 Black Hebrews, the court told the Interior Ministry to expel them “in a humane manner.”

Last week, police arrested three members of the sect who were on their way to the U.S. Consulate to waive American citizenship in an effort to avoid deportation.

Hundreds of Black Hebrews have given up their U.S. passports, reasoning that Israel would let them stay if they had nowhere to go.