When members of the Hebrew Israelite community in Dimona piled into a 1994 Volkswagen van and drove from their desert town to Jerusalem last week, it was more than a routine visit. The VW was converted last week from diesel fuel to run on vegetable oil, and the trip was to the Foreign Ministry.

Community members say that vegetable oil could be a cleaner, cheaper alternative to petroleum-based fuel. Their meeting with officials from Mashav, the ministry's center for international cooperation, is part of their efforts to promote the technology beyond Israel's borders. The 140-km. round-trip drive helped demonstrate the viability of plant oils as fuel.

"If our desire is to live in a clean world and put a stop to the destructive trend of global warming, we need to make some serious changes," community spokesperson Prince Immanuel Ben-Yehuda said. "As we become more knowledgeable about our responsibility to maintain the environment, the responsible step is to look into alternative energy sources. We need to look for more viable solutions in the long run."

Baruch Ben-Yehudah, president and CEO of the Hebrew Israelites' Maryland-based company, Plantroleum, was in Dimona for two weeks in July to demonstrate the conversion of a diesel-powered vehicle to run mainly on vegetable oil. The team, which had no prior experience with the technology, retrofitted the engine within 48 hours.

The Hebrew Israelites are not the first to explore vegetable oil as an alternative energy source. The trend is on the rise among environmentally conscious Americans. Musician Neil Young reportedly uses biodiesel engines in his tour vehicles.

Mashav head Haim Divon expressed support for the community's initiative. "It's definitely an interesting prototype," he said. "We are just at the beginning stages. Now we have to find the proper technology and examine ways to make it practical and profitable."

In a recent New York Times article, business editor Jim Norman reported on the advantages (better mileage) and disadvantages (less trunk space) of his newly converted vegetable oil engine. "Despite the obvious benefits of using a fuel that contributes to the nation's energy independence, that is relatively cheap and that can be burned after having already served its original purpose - cooking food - it is worth noting that vegetable oil is unlikely to replace petroleum anytime soon," Norman concluded. Other journalists who have investigated the trend have reported a number of benefits, but noted that the car can end up smelling like French fries.

Members of the Dimona-based Hebrew Israelite community are strict vegans, do not wear synthetic materials and some refrain from cutting their hair. Promoting environmentally friendly fuels is part of a larger philosophy for the community, which calls its center "the village of peace."

They hope to share their "green" engine with the developing world. Ben-Yehuda was in the Democratic Republic of Congo recently to discuss training farmers in engine conversion to defray fuel costs.

Members of the community, who believing they are descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of the Bible, left the U.S. in 1967 in an organized exodus. They lived in Liberia until 1969, when they came to Israel on tourist visas. Community members were granted temporary resident status in 1991 and permanent residency in 2003.