Since the Gaza war and first Ferguson protests, many projects have traced intersections between these two contexts: the role of military power and systemic oppression of POC in Israel and in the US. We visited the African Hebrew Israelites’ Village of Peace in Dimona looking for less familiar language to describe the colonial legacies connecting Israel and the US. What we got was a lesson in deep history, meta-narrative, and prophetic visions. And, many lingering questions: about what it means to reclaim an ancestral home, a promised land; about the margins of Israeli society and the politics of outsidership there; and about the legacy of slavery in the US today.
