Tel Aviv – Yehuda Kimani, a Jewish man from Kenya, was deported from Ben Gurion airport on Tuesday morning despite having legally obtained a tourist visa through the Israeli consulate in Nairobi.
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Kimani converted to Judaism several years ago through the Conservative Movement, and became active in the rural mountain community where he lives.
He spent a summer at the Brandeis Summer Institute in LA studying Judaism, and earlier this year he applied to study to study at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.
Kimani applied for a three month tourist visa through the Israeli consulate in Nairobi, while a prominent member of a Masorti (Conservative) synagogue in Jerusalem, agreed to be his sponsor in Israel, signing a bank guarantee for his presence in the country and agreeing to cover all of his costs including flight, housing and tuition.
The Interior Ministry denied his visa request however.
He then reapplied in November, and following checks conducted by the Nairobi consulate, including confirming with the Conservative Yeshiva that Kimani had been accepted to study there, his visa application was approved.
Kimani’s visa was stuck into his passport and signed and stamped by the Israeli ambassador to Kenya, and he made his way to Israel on Monday, arriving in the evening.
Despite his valid visa, Kimani was detained by the border authorities and held at the airport till Tuesday morning whereupon he was expelled and deported to Ethiopia.
The Interior Ministry said in response that Kimani’s second visa application had been “fraudulently obtained” since he had not stated in his second application that his first application had been rejected, and that there was “a concern he would remain [illegally]” in the country after his visa expired.
The Interior Ministry refused to say why his first application was rejected, or why there was a concern he would remain beyond the three month duration of a tourist visa.
Officials in the Masorti Movement in Israel have reacted angrily to Kimani’s deportation, noting that the Interior Ministry frequently rejects visa applications from Jews connected with their denomination from developing countries and accusing the ministry of racism.
“There is no question that it is about the color of his skin,” said Rabbi Andy Sacks, Director of the Masorti Movement’s Rabbinical Assembly in Israel.
“He’s a black person from Africa, that’s the only reason to suspect he will want to stay illegally. We’ve seen it with visa applicants from Venezuela, Uganda, and now Kenya, and for many people of color. It’s outrageous.”
The Masorti Movement says that it will be filing a letter with the Interior Ministry demanding an apology and seeking damages for Kimani’s aborted trip.
The non-frum are outraged. Most of us who are frum I think feel compassion and some shame at this. Chareidim, I would assume, feel triumphal and ecstatic.
Please stop calling him a Jew.
Nice try, but he’s not Jewish
He should have just done like the other Kenyan I know. Fake a USA birth certificate.
Reason so many ‘frum’ are racist bigots? Explain.
I can’t understand why Israel would want to tick off Kenya; Kenya is a good friend of Israel. During the raid and rescue at Entebbe, Uganda, in 1976, it was the Kenyans who provided refueling to the C-130 aircraft on the way back, as well medical care for the wounded. I think that the Israeli Interior Ministry made a bad decision in this instance. Perhaps, they resented this “Conservative convert of color”, and used some baloney excuse to kick him out. Incidentally, many Israelis go to Kenya on vacation. What if the Kenyan government decides to retaliate against Israeli tourists?
To #4 - While I can’t stand Obama, the fact of the matter is that he produced a legitimate birth certificate from the state of Hawaii. There was a woman who appeared on television a few years ago, who stated that her son was born at the same time as Obama was, in the same hospital. When she went to visit her son in the nursery, she saw Obama there, as he was the only Black baby in the nursery. She further stated that in 1961, there were very few Blacks residing in Honolulu (in the civilian population), and she was positive that the baby she saw in August, 1961, was indeed Obama.