Olumba Olumba in Israel: struggling on all fronts1

Abstract

This paper, based on qualitative research, begins with a short overview of the history, theology and daily activities of the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star (BCS) in Israel, from its establishment in 1984 until its dismantling in 2003. Emphasis is given to the interpersonal relations that developed within the BCS congregation and on the relations between BCS and other local African Christian congregations established by African migrant labourers. The main focus will be an analysis of the complex relations between BCS and Israeli society, revolving, for the most part, around relations with the local police, and the ways in which these relations were perceived by other African migrants. Our study will clarify the roots of BCS's exclusion from the broader African migrant community, from the international migrant community and the local Israeli-Christian communityexclusion which was not only imposed upon them by these other communities, but which was to some extent also a self-imposed seclusion.Special attention is given to the last months of the Brotherhood in Israel, when the threat of deportation was held over its members' heads. By tracing the ways in which followers re-constructed their belief in the likelihood of escaping deportation within a strict and coercive religious organization, we shall highlight the nature and level of the Brotherhood's control over its members, as well as the rift between theology and everyday life, between the rhetoric and praxis of official decrees and realpolitik, and between communality and individuality.

“Infiltrators” or Refugees? An Analysis of Israel's Policy Towards African Asylum‐Seekers

“…However they were relatively weak and were closely aligned with the government (Yishai, ; Gidron et al, ). To the extent that migrants who arrived in the 1990s were organized, it was into separate churches (Kemp, ; Sabar and Shragai, ) or along religious/ethnic lines. Migrant community organizations provided limited assistance to members and were not assisted by civil society organizations.…”