Ben Ammi
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Ben Ammi (born Ben Carter in the United States, 1939), also known as Ben Ammi Ben-Israel (Hebrew: בן עמי בן-ישראל; meaning "Son of my People, Son of Israel" in Hebrew) is the founder and spiritual leader of The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. He grew up in Chicago and worked in a factory casting airline parts. It was here that he was exposed by a coworker to the claim that African Americans are descendants of the Biblical Israelites. At age 22 he was ordained and renamed Ben Ammi. He claims to have received a vision from the angel Gabriel in 1966.[1] In the vision he claimed he was instructed to: "Lead the children of Israel among African Americans to the promised land, and establish the long-awaited Kingdom of God." Despite the numerous difficulties on the path to fulfilling the words of the angel, it has been done. In 1967 Ben Ammi led roughly 350 of his followers to Liberia to purge themselves of the negro mind they had received in the United States of America. After two and a half years many had lost faith and gone home. At this point he decided to send five families to Israel in 1969. Ben Ammi and more of his followers arrived in the ensuing months. The Israeli authorities did not deem the group Jewish, and therefore did not grant them a right of return; and hence citizenship. However, they allowed them entry into the country, issuing them tourist visas. However, conflict arose when it became apparent that the group had no intention of leaving. In 1989 Ben Ammi met with the Israeli Interior Minister and the following year the group's members were issued work permits.
In 1991, they were given temporary resident status for a period of five years, which in 1995 was extended for another three years. At the beginning of 2004, the community was granted residency status by the Interior Ministry.
In 2008 the Israeli president Shimon Peres made a historic visit to the community, and in 2009 the first members of the Hebrew community began receiving citizenship status within the State of Israel.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Ben Ammi page
- Statement issued by the Israeli Foreign Ministry (on 2006/09/29) on the Community that Ben Ammi is leading
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