Amos Travelsy suggests putting aside your shyness and picking all the tomatoes you want from the vine. “Otherwise they will rot. There is no one to harvest them,” said Moshav, located in a long plain considered an “orchard” about 14 kilometers from Gaza. (Agricultural Cooperative) In the now-empty greenhouse of Shahshelet, he speaks with pragmatism rather than self-pity. of Israel. ” About 45 people worked at this small agricultural business until the October 7 Hamas attack reached the gates of Shah Sheret and changed everything.
After the killing and kidnapping of dozens of their compatriots, thousands of foreign workers (mostly Thai, but also Nepali and Tanzanian) returned home. Another major workforce, Palestinian day laborers, have had their entry permits revoked (Gaza residents) or suspended (West Bank residents). Many Israelis who worked in agriculture were evacuated to other parts of the country or drafted into reserves. All the missing people create a landscape filled with empty fields, parked tractors, and silence where the sounds of nearby bombings are even more clearly heard, illustrating the 1948 “greatest agricultural crisis since the founding of Israel.” It was defined in Parliament by Oren Ravi, Director-General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The government is offering volunteers, financial incentives for those willing to risk work near Gaza and Lebanon (where the most mortar shells have fallen), and, most importantly, new workers, mainly from India, Malawi, and India. They are trying to fill the void with a rush of labor. Sri Lanka. Although this has significantly compensated for absenteeism, the situation for workers is a cause for concern for human rights groups. An Indian worker was killed by an anti-tank bullet fired by the Hezbollah militia earlier this month. The attack took place in a border area where residents have been evacuated for safety, but he and other Indian and Thai nationals had been hired to work in orchards.
Travelsy, 66, shows off the dead branches of a tomato vine and the empty space where he usually grows eggplants and peppers. He explains that the sowing, care and harvest cycles have strict schedules, which are already over five months long and highly incompatible with the uncertainty of a war with no clear end in sight.
“We need about 30 people for this. I can’t do it alone,” he says. Five workers have just arrived from Malawi. Hosea Chawango, 34, took time off from his job and said he learned of a job opportunity at a local church. “Before I arrived, I wasn’t sure I would be working near Gaza,” he admits. “I knew I was coming into a combat zone…Anyway, they assured me that it would be safe there, so I believe in them,” he said with more eyes than words. He said with hesitation. He added that he earned 200,000 kuachas (about $118) a month in Malawi. Here he earns about 6,000 shekels ($1,600).
A Malawian worker in a greenhouse in Israel’s Moshav Shah Sheret in January last year.Avishag Shahr Yashuv
The area around Gaza is fertile and dotted with kibbutzim, similar to the one attacked on October 7, but although small in area, they account for 25% of the country’s agricultural produce. For some products, the weight is even greater: 60% of domestic potatoes, 57% of barley, 47% of tomatoes and 38% of cabbage come from this country. Prices are soaring in supermarkets, but they are not out of control.
“If there are no new workers, it’s over.”
Ilan Yojanan continues to work at the Ain Habsor Moshab, four miles from Gaza, despite memories of firing a grenade launcher at Palestinian militiamen that day to try to stop them from invading. Due to a lack of employees, the business is operating at his 40% occupancy rate. Of the 32 Thais who used to grow lettuce here, he is the only one staying. The cooperative has been running thanks to Israeli volunteers and the work of Sri Lankan day laborers for a month and a half. “If the volunteers didn’t come, I would have already gone bankrupt. But honestly, if new workers don’t come soon, it’s all over. Volunteers have to do more technical work, maintenance, etc. Some tasks may look easy from the outside, but they’re actually not. Planting lettuce is physically demanding for people who have never planted lettuce in their lives.” he points out.
Amos Travelsy, in one of the greenhouses of the “Moshav” Charcheret.Avishag Shahr Yashuv
Nurit Gil, 42, knows how to plant lettuce, but for five months she will support growers because she is used to organizing groups to protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I have been coordinating minibuses for volunteers like myself. They wake up early to get here from Tel Aviv and assemble their vines in greenhouses with more good intentions than skill. Initially, the government financed their transportation. The cost is currently being covered by a nonprofit organization called Lev Ehad. “On October 8, like all of Israel, I was in a state of panic. For the sake of my mental health, I had an instinct as an activist to do something,” she said of the day. I said it at the end. She said Gill acknowledged that her own donations were “quite small,” but she noted the farmers’ gratitude. “I’m very critical of what the military is doing in Gaza and I feel the need to give something to society. So this is my fight.” She is an architect, so she has time. , construction has been delayed due to the war.
Before the war, 29,900 foreign workers were employed in Israeli agriculture. Most came from Thailand. When the war began, nearly 10,000 people returned to their homeland. Additionally, between 10,000 and 12,000 Palestinians were barred from entering Israel. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been drafted into the reservists and have either “failed to show up to work out of fear” or have taken refuge in other parts of the country, making it “very difficult to get to work.” ” said the official. In the Ministry.
Authorities have taken steps that some farmers see as temporary measures. On the other hand, a bilateral agreement with Sri Lanka. In other countries, it has hired about 3,000 people through private human resources companies. Additionally, the government temporarily lifted the five-year stay limit for foreign workers. Typically, once that limit is reached, foreign workers must leave the country (or remain illegally) in accordance with policies aimed at maintaining a Jewish population majority. There is a stipend of 2,000 shekels ($536) for Israelis working in border areas. It is estimated that there are as many foreign workers now as there were before the war, but Palestinian and Israeli workers are still missing.
Israeli volunteers work in a greenhouse in Israel’s Shasheret Moshav in January.Avishag Shahr Yashuv
Nationalism is also used as a factor. In supermarkets, fruits and vegetables are displayed with the national flag and messages encouraging people to buy Israeli products. After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan began looking for dates for his state visit to Turkey, Rabi told parliament: “Consumers should not have to wonder whether they want tomatoes from Arava (southeast of Israel) or from Turkey.” ” he said. Weeks before the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the Israeli leader as “worse than Hitler.”
Ayal Kimhi, professor of agricultural economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and deputy director of the Shosh Social and Economic Research Institute, also fought in the Golan Heights (Syrian territory occupied by Israel since 1967) during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Recalls that the agricultural sector has been affected. He said he had never experienced a crisis like the current one, particularly due to the cut off of access for Palestinian workers during the Second Intifada (2000-2005). But his real concern is that the situation could drag on. Like other developed countries, agriculture accounts for only 2% of GDP, so this is not about economic impact, but about food security. “The coronavirus pandemic has already highlighted its importance, and Israel cannot rely on countries like Turkey to decide to suspend exports in situations like this,” he points out. “Bringing workers in from other countries is not a long-term solution.”
symbolic importance
Agriculture, an important economic sector in the early years of Israel’s founding, has since declined significantly but retains an important symbolic dimension. Zionist settlers admired Israel’s work on land that for centuries Jews had been prohibited from owning in Europe. The poster depicted a “new Jew” determined, muscular, and holding a hoe in his hand.
A sign with the Israeli flag and the phrase “We will conquer” near a greenhouse in Shershelet Moshav.Avishag Shahr Yashuv
The crisis does not only affect the region known as the “Orchard of Israel.” The border with Lebanon, which is the region with the highest number of refugees (approximately 80,000 people), will also be affected. According to Ministry of Agriculture data, 40% of deciduous and subtropical fruit crops are grown in this zone, mainly avocados, wine grapes, plums and mangoes. Shells are falling daily in Gaza, the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is escalating, and the scale of the destruction and famine in Gaza is overshadowed.
On March 4, one of these shells killed a foreign worker hurriedly sent to save Israel’s agriculture. Patnibin Maxwell, 31, from India, had arrived in the area two months ago to send money to his pregnant wife and five-year-old daughter. The Indian embassy in Tel Aviv issued an urgent appeal to citizens to “relocate to safe areas” in the country, especially “those working or visiting the northern and southern border areas.”
Over the phone, Orit Ronen, agricultural coordinator for Kav Laoved, an Israeli NGO that advocates for the rights of foreign workers, explains the problems faced by foreign workers: From what I see, I don’t think they have a clear idea of what they’re getting themselves into. Some make it as far as 5 kilometers from Gaza, or even as far north as the north. Additionally, Israelis usually have cars, but they don’t really have one, and it’s frustrating to realize that there are no open places in the area to buy food. ”
Andrew Lyman, 27, is an environmental science graduate from Lilongwe University and part of the first group of Malawians to arrive here in November. “The salary reflected in the contract is different from the salary we receive. According to the contract, I receive 22.5 shekels ($6) per hour, but I receive 35 shekels ($9) per hour. ),” he protested. Lack of clarity on terms such as the difference between gross and net salaries and how much is lost when remittances are converted from shekels to dollars and vice versa, led to up to 23 Malawians quitting their jobs. This is behind the dissatisfaction. “Some people work on construction sites and earn more there,” explains Yojanan, a farmer.
Nir Gesu, Malawi’s honorary consul to Israel, points out that more than 1,000 Malawians work on the farm. “In five years there may be 50,000 Malawians in Israel, but for now we cannot meet the demand for 100,000 because the workers are not well trained,” he pointed out. do.
The country, one of the world’s poorest countries and an ally of Israel, signed a series of agreements in November to facilitate the sending of young people to work in Israel’s agriculture sector through private companies. The move has been criticized by human rights groups and opposition groups, citing the risks to workers and the secret nature of the deal, which was not announced until days before the first group of 221 people left for Israel. “You must be between 23 and 35 years old, have a BMI and height within the required parameters, have held a valid passport for at least four years, and prove you have no criminal record,” Justin explains. Mr. Kangle is director of the recruitment agency Workers for Araba Farmers.
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