The Supreme Court Thursday upheld the expulsion of eight Black Hebrews who entered Israel last year, but suggested that those of the sect who have been here longer should be allowed to stay. Black Hebrews have been seeking Israeli citizenship as Jews under the Law of Return, but the Court agreed with the Interior Ministry in ruling that “the most one can say is that they maintain the Law of Return of Moses as they understand it, not as it has developed through the ages.”
The eight–seven of them members of a family named Clark–were picked up by police earlier this year in Jericho after expiration of their three-month visas. They had entered Israel last year and lived first at the sect’s center in Dimona. Of late, the Interior Ministry has been turning away members of the sect arriving at Lod Airport.
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