Ben-Israel

Isaac (Yitzhak) Ben-Israel (born 1949 in Tel Aviv) is an Israeli reserve major general, emeritus professor at Tel Aviv University, and a major contributor to Israel's national cybersecurity and space-policy frameworks.[1] He studied mathematics, physics, and philosophy at Tel Aviv University and completed his Ph.D. there in 1988.[1] His career spans more than three decades of military service followed by academic and public-policy roles in security, technology, and governance.

Ben-Israel joined the Israel Air Force directly after graduating from high school in 1967 and served until his retirement in 2002.[1] His assignments spanned operations, intelligence, and weapons-development units. He headed the IAF Operations Research Branch and the Analysis and Assessment Division of IAF Intelligence, and from 1991 to 1997 he directed military research and development across the IDF and the Ministry of Defense.[1]

In January 1998 he was promoted to major general and appointed director of the Defense Research and Development Directorate in Israel's Ministry of Defense.[1] This role is also described as heading Israel's Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure from 1998 to 2002.[2] His military contributions were recognized twice with the Israel Defense Prize—in 1972 for developing an airborne weapon-delivery system for the F-4E Phantom and in 2001 for a project introducing a new concept of future warfare.[1] He also received the Israel Air Force Award in 1976 for developing a computerized command, control, communications, and computing system.[1]

After retiring from the IDF, Ben-Israel became a professor at Tel Aviv University and held several positions in its security and governance programs.[1] He headed the Curiel Centre for International Studies from 2002 to 2004, directed the university's Program for Security Studies from 2004 to 2007, served as executive director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Technological Analysis and Forecasting from 2010 to 2013, and was deputy director of the Hartog School of Government and Policy from 2005 to 2015.[1]

Ben-Israel served as a member of Israel's 17th Knesset from June 2007 to February 2009, sitting on the Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, the Finance Committee, and the Science and Technology Committee. He also chaired the Homeland Security Subcommittee and the Israeli–Indian Parliamentary Friendship Association.[1]

He chaired the Israel Space Agency beginning in 2005 and the National Council for Research and Development from 2010 until around late 2020.[1][3] In 2014 he became head of the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Studies Centre at Tel Aviv University.[1] The center later reported approximately 300 researchers and grants covering more than 100 research topics.[4] He also founded RAY TOP Technologies in 2002.[1] Other roles included membership on the boards of Israel Aircraft Industries and the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies and service on the advisory council of the Samuel Neaman Institute at the Technion.[1]

Ben-Israel helped shape Israel's national cybersecurity architecture. In 2010, he recommended establishing a National Cyber Bureau, and in 2011 Israel's prime minister appointed him to lead a task force that formulated the country's national cyber policy.[4][1] That work was followed by the establishment of the National Cyber Headquarters within the Prime Minister's Office.[1]

In 2014, he led a second government task force whose findings produced a cabinet decision in February 2015 to establish a new National Cyber Authority.[1] The authority and the National Cyber Bureau were subsequently merged into the National Cyber Directorate, which assumed responsibility for defending Israel's national cyberspace and advancing the country's cyber power.[4] Ben-Israel was also associated with the directorate's establishment and joined the board of Cyber 2.0.[5]

He argued publicly that cybersecurity should not be left exclusively to secret intelligence services and that a democratic country must weigh security against privacy and civil liberties.[4] He also promoted a national initiative intended to make Israel one of the world's five leading artificial-intelligence countries, working alongside former National Cyber Bureau head Eviatar Matania.[2] A committee they co-led proposed annual government investment of NIS 1–2 billion in artificial intelligence, a coordinating agency modeled on the National Cyber Directorate, a national AI cloud, four to six university research centers, and ethical review procedures. The committee included 15 subcommittees and approximately 300 participants from government, the IDF, higher education, and the technology industry.[6]

Ben-Israel has produced several books bridging military theory and technology policy. His 1989 work Dialogues on Science and Military Intelligence won the Itzhak-Sade Award for Military Literature.[1] The Philosophy of Military Intelligence was published in 1999 and translated into French in 2004.[1] Later works include Science, Technology and Security: From Soldiers in Combat up to Outer Space (2006) and Israel Defence Doctrine (2013).[1] He is married to Inbal, née Marcus, and they have three sons: Yuval, born in 1981; Roy, born in 1984; and Alon, born in 1988.[1]

Ben Ammi Ben-Israel (1939–2014), born Ben Carter in Chicago, was the founder and spiritual leader of the community officially known as the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem and commonly called the Black Hebrews.[7] While working at a foundry in Chicago, he experienced what he described as a divine revelation and later recalled, "I realized that I was the Messiah."[8] He taught that the biblical Hebrews were Black people who retained a rightful claim to Israel as their ancestral homeland, and he spent decades building a community in Dimona in Israel's Negev desert that eventually numbered in the thousands.[9][8]

Ben Carter had been a Baptist before a coworker introduced him to the idea that African Americans descended from the biblical Israelites.[10] In 1966 he reported receiving a vision from the angel Gabriel instructing him to lead his followers to Israel.[10] The following year he gathered several hundred African American believers and led them to Liberia. After the settlement encountered difficulties, he sent families onward to Israel and moved to Dimona with the remaining followers.[10]

The African Hebrew Israelites declared themselves the "true" Jewish people and described Israelis as "trustees" of the land who would ultimately be replaced by Black people returning to the Promised Land.[11] Encyclopaedia Britannica reports that, after investigation, the Chief Rabbinate concluded that the group was not Jewish and was not entitled to citizenship under Israel's Law of Return.[12] Israeli authorities initially granted tourist visas while providing immigrant-level benefits including education, public housing, employment assistance, and full medical coverage.[8]

The community's relationship with Israeli authorities was contentious for decades. Officials discovered that the group's population was growing through overstayed tourist visas and moved to bar further entry, while a prolonged debate unfolded over whether members qualified for citizenship under the Law of Return.[11] Israeli authorities repeatedly attempted to deport and detain followers during the early years, and the dispute over permanent-residency permits lasted about two decades.[7]

Accounts use different terms for the community's changing legal status. The Anti-Defamation League says negotiations led to citizenship in 1990.[9] The National Library of Israel says Interior Minister Aryeh Deri established guidelines that year enabling most members to remain permanently, while Ynetnews reports temporary residency during the 1990s and permanent residency in 2003.[8][10] A late-1980s compromise reportedly linked citizenship for African Hebrew families to their children's military service, and approximately 300 community members later served in the Israel Defense Forces.[7]

Ben Ammi Ben-Israel received Israeli citizenship at a special ceremony involving then-Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar approximately a year and a half before his death in December 2014.[13]

The community that Ben Ammi Ben-Israel built in Dimona developed a coherent internal structure and a distinctive lifestyle. Its organization included 12 consultants known as princes, 13 priests with religious and spiritual roles, ministers responsible for management and daily logistics, and members overseeing ongoing community activities.[14] Members observed a vegan lifestyle and fasted on Saturdays, and the community operated vegan restaurants in Tel Aviv and Dimona.[14]

The Dimona settlement operates Neve Shalom, also called the Village of Peace, which has been characterized as one of Israel's largest and most successful urban kibbutzim.[11] The Anti-Defamation League placed the community's size at approximately 5,000, while Ynetnews reported approximately 2,700 members in 2014.[9][10] The Times of Israel placed the figure at approximately 3,000.[7] The community did not identify as Jewish but believed that it descended from the ancient Israelites, and its followers regarded Ben Ammi as a messianic leader.[7]

Ben Ammi Ben-Israel died in Dimona in December 2014 at the age of 75, having received treatment at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.[13] The community declared a day of mourning and canceled school.[14] Its statement said that he had devoted his life to the community, Israel, and the Land of Israel, while the mayor of Dimona noted that Ben-Israel had worked with government officials on housing for the community.[14]

His teachings continued in the Village of Peace urban kibbutz in Dimona.[8] His career linked an African American religious movement with long-running Israeli debates over identity, immigration, citizenship, and the Law of Return.

Menasseh ben Israel was a 17th-century Portuguese rabbi, kabbalist, writer, diplomat, printer, and publisher.[15] Born into a family of conversos during the Inquisition, he fled with his family to Amsterdam as a child and rose to prominence in the Netherlands as a rabbi, author, and printer.[16] He was known throughout Europe as the "Ambassador of the Jews."[16]

His intellectual interests extended to questions of Jewish dispersal and messianism. After discussions with the Portuguese converso Antonio de Montezino, he became convinced that South America's Indigenous peoples were descended from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and supported that argument with what the National Library of Israel describes as "dozens of testimonies and references from sources and travelogues."[16] He established the first Hebrew printing press in Holland and used it to advance Jewish learning and advocacy.[15]

Menasseh ben Israel's most consequential political act was his campaign for the readmission of Jews to England, which had expelled its Jewish population in 1290. In 1650 he wrote a book arguing for their return, and Oliver Cromwell subsequently invited him to England; discussions opened at Whitehall Palace in December 1655.[16] His pamphlet Vindiciae Judaeorum refuted accusations against Jews, and the resulting policy removed the official prohibition on Jewish settlement in England, enabling the gradual return of Jews to the country.[16]

Ruth Ben-Israel was an Israeli legal scholar born in Port Said, Egypt, who specialized in labor law.[17] She earned LL.B., LL.M., and Ph.D. degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and joined the faculty of Tel Aviv University in 1975, where she taught labor law, civil procedure, social security, and occupational equality.[17] She served as dean of Tel Aviv University's Law Faculty in 1990–1991.[17]

Her scholarly output included nine books, among them Israel Labor Law in Hebrew (1989), and she edited the Israel Labor Law Year Book from 1998 to 2000.[17] Beyond academia, she served as a legal adviser to Knesset and government bodies and sat as a public representative on the National Labor Court from 1988 to 2000, while also chairing public and government committees dealing with women's rights and labor legislation.[17] Her awards included the Bar Niv Prize in Labor Law (1988), the Minkoff Prize for Excellence in Law (2000), the Israel Prize in law (2001), and the Israel Bar Association Prize for Women in Law (2001).[17]

Shlomo Ben-Israel, born Shlomo Gelfer in Brest-Litovsk, Russia, was a Yiddish journalist, playwright, and mystery writer who adopted the pen name Ben-Israel.[18] He settled in the United States in 1939 and became a staff writer at the Jewish Daily Forward and a commentator for the WEVD radio station.[18] He was active in the Labor Zionist movement and authored mysteries in both Yiddish and Hebrew.[18]

Ron Ben-Israel (born 1957) grew up in Tel Aviv as the child of a Holocaust survivor and developed early interests in baking and dance.[19] He began a dance career in 1978, trained at the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts, and worked with both the Batsheva and Bat-Dor dance companies.[19] After developing arthritis, he left dance and began baking professionally; Martha Stewart discovered him in the late 1990s, and he subsequently rose to prominence in the United States culinary world.[19] His second career culminated in the Food Network program Sweet Genius.[19]

The most significant controversies attached to the Ben-Israel name concern Ben Ammi Ben-Israel and the African Hebrew Israelites. The community's claims to Israelite ancestry and its assertion that it constituted the "true" Jewish people—describing contemporary Israelis as "trustees" of the Promised Land—were contested by religious, governmental, and communal authorities in Israel.[11] The Chief Rabbinate concluded after investigation that the group was not Jewish and thus was not entitled to citizenship under the Law of Return.[12]

In 1977, the group conducted an antisemitic propaganda campaign that included accusations that Jews were "money-grabbing," a journal image captioning a photograph of Prime Minister Menachem Begin as "the spirit of Hitler," and calls for ending American aid to Israel while boycotting Jewish-owned businesses and Jewish political candidates.[11] These incidents document antisemitic campaigning by the Dimona group during that period, while later accounts describe its integration into Israeli civic life and its continued presence in Dimona.[11]

Ben Ammi's reported 1966 vision and the community's claimed descent from the biblical Israelites are presented in the sources as religious claims rather than independently established historical facts.[10][11] Reported community-size figures range from approximately 2,700 to 5,000 depending on the source and year of reporting.[9][10]