Farmer Marwan Abu Salah picks sweet potatoes from his plot in Rafah, south of Gaza City.
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RAFAH, Gaza Strip – Palestinian farmers in Gaza tune into the rhythms of the Jewish calendar and anxiously await this moment.
Every seven years, the Bible commands farmers in the Holy Land to rest their fields (Leviticus 25). A year-long agricultural holiday, known as shmita in Hebrew, starting this fall.
Most Israeli farmers continued to plow their fields. But to help nurture the strictest Jewish traditions – many of the ultra-Orthodox communities that make up nearly 13% of Israel’s population – Israel vows to relax tight restrictions on fruit and vegetable exports imposed by Hamas. rule. Gaza.
Israel will allow farmers in the blockaded territory to export cucumbers, zucchini, peppers and sweet potatoes to Israel this year, Israel’s Agriculture Ministry said.
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For the first time since Islamist militants took over Gaza in 2007, Israel will allow farmers in the blockaded territory to export cucumbers, zucchini, peppers and sweet potatoes for Israel’s consumption this year. Israeli Ministry of Agriculture.
“Once every seven years is the year of the faithful,” said Gaza farmer Marwan Abu Salah, referring to devout Jews on the other side of Israel’s fortified fence, whom he has not yet seen. met but hope to become your main customer.
The 37-year-old farmer plunged bare-handed down the leafy green sand dunes – located on the southern edge of Gaza near the Egyptian border – and plucked out ripe, round sweet potatoes. “Red gold,” he said, cradling the pink babies like a proud father.
Palestinian workers clean dirt for sweet potatoes to prepare for export to the West Bank.
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Palestinian workers clean dirt for sweet potatoes to prepare for export to the West Bank.
Fatima Shbair for NPR
Every seven years, Israel opens its doors a little wider
Gaza could be an ideal source of fruit and vegetables for Israel. shmita the year runs from September 2021 to September 2022. It’s next door, it’s cheap, and Jewish tradition says it was ruled by the Philistines during the time of the ancient Israelites more than 3,000 years ago, so many Orthodox rabbis consider it beyond the borders of the Holy Land and exempt from the biblical year of rest.
But 14 years of conflict have left most of Gaza’s produce stranded.
In 2007, Hamas, considered a terrorist group by Israel and the West, overtook Gaza from the internationally recognized Palestinian government. Since then, Israel and Egypt have imposed sanctions on the territory, severely restricting travel and commerce out of Gaza, and cutting product exports.
For this year shmitaIn addition to tomatoes and eggplants, Israel has added other crops, including peppers and sweet potatoes, to its list of approved vegetable imports from Gaza.
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Only after a brutal war between Hamas-Israel in 2014, Israel opened the door to allow Gaza farmers exporting products to Israel and Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank for the first time. Only tomatoes and eggplants are allowed into Israel, appearing on supermarket shelves for ultra-Orthodox Jews during the 2015 agricultural holiday.
Then shmita The year ended, the farmers of Gaza were surprised: Israel let tomatoes and eggplants continue to flower year after year, according to Gisha, an Israeli legal advocacy group that advocates for freedom of movement for civilians in Gaza. Israel has also allowed the sale of Gaza strawberries in the West Bank.
For this year shmitaIn addition to tomatoes and eggplants, Israel has added other varieties – from peppers to sweet potatoes – to its list of approved vegetable imports. Palestinian farmers have sent samples of their produce to Israel for hygiene testing and are expected to begin sales at the start of the Jewish New Year in September.
The farmers are still waiting.
Palestinian workers in Gaza prepare vegetables for export to the West Bank. They had been promised a chance to export to Israel but had grown impatient. Some grew more crops, expected large sales in Israel, and ended up throwing away the product or selling it cheaply on the local market.
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What holds?
“It’s supposed to start soon,” Israel’s Agriculture Ministry told NPR by email.
Gisha said Israeli agricultural officials said there was no need for the produce in Gaza because Turkey was meeting the current market. shmita request. Egypt and Jordan also provide surplus vegetables to Israel during the biblical year of rest, and some ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities accept produce from Palestinian-owned farms in the West Bank.
Egypt-brokered armistice negotiations between Israel and Hamas could also contribute to the delay in exports from Gaza.
“Every aspect of Israel’s approach to Gaza, including what goods may be offered in shmita Tania Hary, director of Gisha, said: “This government, like its predecessors, is continuing to increase its control over economic life – the behavior of civilians in the Strip for political gain. own, violate the obligation to protect human rights, not to trade in human rights.”
Israel has allowed the import of Gaza tomatoes since shmita 2015. Gaza farmers protested against Israel’s agricultural request to remove tomato stems, claiming that this would damage the product.
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Farmers feel cheated
The farmers of Gaza are growing impatient. Some planted additional crops months in advance, expecting large sales in Israel, and ended up either throwing away the product or selling it cheaply on the local market, missing out on potential revenue.
“We started growing more tomatoes and zucchini because we understood the demand would be huge,” said Abu Salah. “They tricked us.”
The farmers of Gaza add it to a long list of grievances they hold against Israel. Israel not only restricts the export of products to foreign countries, but also sprays herbicides along the border with Gaza to destroy dense vegetation and keep the border area clear for security surveillance. Farmers say the substance poisons crops in some of the remaining arable land in densely populated areas.
When interviewed, Gaza farmers were not well versed in the religious reasoning behind what they called the “year of the religious,” and some misinterpreted the Jewish tradition as the purchase order. products from his enemies.
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Religion and economy going on
In Israel, the past depended on Gaza for production shmita has caused controversy among devout Jewish communities, between those who support the strictest religious practices, and others who oppose supporting the economy of a territory run by Israel’s enemy Hamas. onion.
When interviewed, the Gaza farmers were not well versed in the religious reasoning behind what they called the “year of the religious,” and some misinterpreted the Jewish tradition every seven years. times is the order to buy products from his enemies. The concentration of farmers is not a religion but a rare opportunity to increase income after years of export ban.
Gaza farmers could have found a much larger market in Israel this year – if not for the religious hole.
A Palestinian worker prays near vegetables to be exported to the West Bank. Farmers are focusing on a rare opportunity to increase their income after years of export bans.
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Only 3% to 5% of Israeli Farmers Leave Their Land Abandoned According to the Bible, Ministry of Agriculture speak. The rest consists of a legal fiction facilitated by the country’s Rabbinate Leader and accepted by most Jewish communities: They sold their farmland to a non-Jew symbolically for the year and continue to grow and sell as usual.
That’s how Brazilian road engineer Wesley Schmidt, 31, who moved to Israel with his Jewish wife five years ago, became the iconic owner of about a million acres of Israeli farmland this year. .
Rabbis says a workaround is needed to keep Israel’s agrarian economy viable.
Rabbi Yedidya Sinclair, author of The Sabbath of the Earth, a book about shmita. “But it’s a compassionate loophole.”
