For 60 years, the Village of Peace has lived a fully plant-based covenant, rooted not in trend, but in Divine Understanding of the body, the earth, and our place between them.
The human body is drawn from the earth, adam from adamah. We are 70% water, 30% minerals. We thrive from nature's abundance. Every departure from that is a departure from our design.
In the Village of Peace, we do not follow a diet. We live a live-it, a complete covenant with the earth, the body, and the Divine Order of creation. For more than six decades, the African Hebrew Israelite community has eaten plant-based, organically, and intentionally, long before the world gave this way of living a name.
Our live-it is not built on restriction. It is built on abundance, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds grown on our own land in the Negev Desert. We reject meat, dairy, eggs, and fish not because we fear them, but because we understand the covenant differently. The body is sacred. What enters it matters.
This live-it has sustained over 3,000 saints across generations. It has produced more than 1,150 natural births at our House of Life. It has kept our elders vibrant into their 80s and 90s. The numbers are not the argument, the people are.
Food prepared with intention.
The Village of Peace teaches five elemental practices, what we call the Five Medicines, that together form the complete system for Mastering the Art of Living.
Genesis 1:29 is our foundation, "every herb bearing seed and every fruit tree." For 60 years we have eaten whole, plant-based foods grown in our own soil. Food is not fuel. It is covenant.
We are drawn from the earth and composed of its waters. Purity and hydration are sacred disciplines, not afterthoughts. Clean water is the first cleansing, inside and out.
The Shemita principle of sabbatical rest extends from the land to the body. Proper sleep and restoration align us with Natural Law, the rhythm the Creator built into creation.
Movement is the expression of a living covenant with the body. Dance, community work, walking the desert, physical vitality is not separate from spiritual vitality. It is part of it.
Internal cleanliness, through the gut, which our tradition calls the Fifth Brain, and external cleanliness together constitute wholeness. A clean body is a prepared vessel.
The Five Medicines are not separate practices, they are one integrated covenant. Together, they have sustained 3,000 saints and produced over 1,150 natural births.
Food grows wherever the Kfar gives space for it. Fruit trees line the pathways, herb gardens fill courtyard corners, and seasonal vegetables take root in every available plot within the community. Urban container growing has extended that reach further still. These are not grand farm operations, they are the living expression of a people who refuse to separate the act of eating from the act of tending.
We eat seasonally. The Shemita principle, the biblical sabbatical of the earth, shapes how we think about food, rest, and reciprocity with the land. We eat what is in season, when it is available. No meat. No dairy. No eggs. No fish. No compromise. This is not a diet. It is a covenant.
What the community cannot grow, it sources with the same intention it brings to everything. Organic, whole-plant produce, grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables, is made available through community provisioning, selected for quality and alignment with the live-it. From soil to table, the standard does not change.
Millet, brown rice, wheat berries, quinoa
Lentils, chickpeas, mung beans, black-eyed peas
Kale, Swiss chard, spinach, za'atar, desert herbs
Dates, figs, pomegranates, watermelon, citrus
Tahini, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds
Sprouts, fermented vegetables, herbal teas
[Shishi] Friday Bazaar, Open to All
Every [Shishi] Friday morning, our bazaar opens to the public. Come taste 60 years of plant-based wisdom: fresh produce, prepared foods, and the culture that sustains us.
Bringing the live-it to mainstream Israel since 1995.
What began as a community kitchen in Dimona grew into Israel's premier plant-based food enterprise. Teva Deli produces over 200 plant-based products, from deli slices to ready meals, staffed entirely by VOP community members.
In 2013, Teva Deli products supplied the Israeli pilot of a major international pizza chain's plant-based programme, decades after the Village of Peace had already been living this way. The world was catching up to what we had known since 1973.
Since 1980, our community midwives have welcomed over 1,150 children into the world at the House of Life, a natural birth centre rooted in the understanding that birth, like eating, is a sacred act.
Our plant-based live-it is inseparable from maternal health. Mothers who eat in alignment with our covenant experience lower complication rates, stronger recoveries, and children born into a community that will nourish them from day one.
The House of Life is not a facility. It is a commitment, that life deserves the most natural, most intentional entry into this world.
The live-it is not an idea. It is a daily practice, lived by thousands across generations. These are voices from inside the covenant.
“For nearly 40 years, this live-it has been my greatest teacher. I witness in my own body, and in the community around me, that living in alignment with Natural Law is the foundation of lasting vitality. This is not a belief. It is a daily experience.”
Sgan Yahgdeer
Deputy Minister, Ministry of Information
40 years in community
“Every Shishi (Friday) at the bazaar, I witness the joy in visitors's eyes when they taste our food. They come curious and leave transformed. That response, that is the live-it working. It is not theory. It is a living, breathing, tangible reality open to all Life Seekers.”
Sganeet WOV Ahmahlyah E. Nasik Elyahshuv
Public Relations Leader
Lifelong community member
“Our ancestors cultivated plant-based abundance in Africa for millennia before the word "vegan" existed. We are not discovering something new. We are remembering something ancient, a covenant between the people, the earth, and the Creator of all.”
Yahav Ben Sar Ahmadiel
Social Media & Heritage
Heritage researcher
Visit us in the Negev Desert, explore our marketplace, or simply begin by learning more. The live-it is open to all Life Seekers.
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