Dimona is home to Israel's Black Hebrew community, governed by its founder and spiritual leader, Ben Ammi Ben-Israel.

* Ben Ammi ( born 1939 ), Anointed Spiritual Leader of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem ( Shomrei Hashalom )

; 1969: First group of African Hebrew Israelites begin to migrate to Israel under the leadership of Ben Ammi Ben Israel.

The nearby lands are cultivated ; a banana grove belongs to the Ben Ammi settlement.

The group was founded in Chicago by a former steel worker named Ben Carter ( b. 1939 ), who took the name Ben Ammi upon joining the Hebrew Israelite community in Chicago.

Denouncing the name Ben Carter and calling it his " slave name ," Ben Ammi says that in 1966 he had a " vision ," in which the Archangel Gabriel called him to take his people, African Americans, back to the Holy Land of Israel.

Ben Ammi and 350 of his followers first settled in Liberia in 1967.

Ben Ammi accused the government of racism and usurping the holy land, while claiming that " The greatest conspiracy ever conceived in the minds of men was the creation of National Homeland for Jewish People .".

Although the leader Bayard Rustin called Ben Ammi " a dictator " without " the same moral standards as democratic leaders ", the others disassociated themselves from this.

The core of the group's lifestyle is the Tanakh, Ben Ammi claims that " the Law and the Prophets ... are the light ; they are the essence of what is required to set man on the path and show him the way back to his Maker.

Ben Ammi claims that Africans are the victims of " a cruel plot to control us, an international religious plot that came about as a result of Blacks disobeying the law and commandments of God.

On several occasions Ben Ammi and the community have been accused of anti-semitism.

As well as denying the Israelite heritage of world Jewry and its claim to the land of Israel, the stalemate between the community and Israel in the late 70s led to heightened tensions and according to the Jerusalem Post, " Ben Ammi mounted a worldwide public-relations offensive against the government that dripped with anti-semitism.

During an interview with Haaretz, a popular Israeli newspaper, Ben Ammi stated that " We must understand that peace will never come, and true freedom will never come, by way of politicians ...

In April of 2011, Ben Ammi led a 7-member delegation to South Africa to engage in discussions with His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini and the South African Government to explore options of replicating the " Dimona Model " for community development in the country.

* Ben ' Ammi, part i., St. Petersburg, 1887

Ben Ammi Ben Israel established the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem in Chicago, Illinois, in 1966.

In 1969, after a sojourn in Liberia, Ben Ammi and about 30 Hebrew Israelites moved to Israel.