"There are already preparatory tours for thieves": Farmers in the Negev and the Galilee are preparing for the crime season
In the localities of the regional councils in the western Negev, sheep and cattle breeders were asked to be more vigilant.
In the north, an anonymous person has already been identified on an ATV, which examined the area.
On the other hand, the police say that the figures for agricultural crime are declining, but the farmers explain this in a simple way: "We are not complaining."
Yanir Yagana and Eli Ashkenazi
21/06/2022
Tuesday, 21 June 2022, 12:08 Updated: Sunday, 03 July 2022, 12:34
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In the video: Suspect arrested after documenting stealing 157 kg of avocado from an orchard near Binyamina (from security cameras)
A car that suspects loaded on hay (Photo: official website, Shaul Hefetz)
"Dear residents, please note that in the near future, as every year during this period, we are expected to increase the number of thefts and agricultural outbreaks with an emphasis on animals. Please be vigilant for any event and report to us immediately" - this is the message received yesterday (Monday) The regions in the western Negev.
In the north of the country, there are already those who report "preparatory tours of thieves," defined Israel Bloch, a managerial farmer who described the arrival of an ATV rider to his sheep farm.
According to him, the rider is skilled and also took care of silencing the ATV's exhaust system.
"A real operational trip," Bloch defined the anonymous man who came to his farm.
The farm guard reported the incident to him, and together with his friends from the Border Police volunteer unit, began chasing fields that ended in the evasion of the unknown.
A quarter ton of stolen avocado.
May 2018 (Photo: Walla! NEWS system, "Keeping the house together?)
Bloch is a veteran farmer, third generation in Nahalal.
Agriculture flows in his arteries and alongside the barn and fields he recently decided to set up a sheep farm.
Already during its construction criminals came to the works site and tried to steal the construction contractor’s tractor.
The failure did not prevent criminals from re-entering Bloch's farm, when the farm was already in place, inhabited by sheep.
Fifteen sheep were stolen from the site.
The value of each sheep is NIS 2,500.
Shortly afterwards criminals came to Bloch's field and stole the motorized irrigation source, the battery that operates it and the solar collector that feeds the battery.
A tractor parked in the area stole a valuable pipe and emptied its fuel tank.
"I did not deceive myself, and already when I built the farm I knew I would have high expenses on guarding," Bloch said.
He employs a guard and installed other various components, in an attempt to thwart thefts.
"Retention has become an expense that farmers have to take into account, but it is an expense that in the end is part of the price the consumer pays," he said.
According to Eli Gozlan, an officer in the Border Investigations and Intelligence Division, "These are squads with a great deal of knowledge and experience.
These are not people who decided in the morning to go out and steal.
They also come from both Israel and the PA. "The officer added that all farmers file complaints with the police about the thefts. Beyond that, police data show a decrease in agricultural crime incidents, but farmers explain this simply:" We do not file complaints. "
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Plum theft from an orchard (Photo: Walla !, police spokeswoman)
"In 2021, there were 770 incidents of agricultural crime. If you compare this period this year, to last year there were about 100 fewer incidents of agricultural crime," Gozlan continued.
"We have stepped up the collection system and volunteers who take care of the countryside. We do everything to make the farmers feel that we are the address for crime problems - from lone watermelon to herd thefts, we will be there for farmers."
On the other hand, a senior agricultural official in the Negev claimed that "farmers are afraid of being exposed after theft. Because of the exposure, they are again harmed by theft. A large part of the farmers turn to the police, but there are some who do not and prefer to absorb the thefts. Especially on weekends when they are not in the field. "
A resident of Kibbutz Ruhama and a man of agriculture and tourism, Yankele Grossfeld, said that agricultural crime does not only amount to theft, but also vandalism.
"They come to the fields at night and destroy equipment. This is serious damage. As far as we know, the thieves come from the Bedouin diaspora. We turn to the police, but there is no answer to these things and the police have no ability to deal with it."
The secretary general of the Israel Agricultural Association, Avshalom Villan, says that "this is a coup d'etat.
In a phenomenon that has reached monstrous proportions and causes damage of millions of shekels.
Farmers in Israel deal daily with criminal incidents - protection, theft, arson, harassment - and the police are unable to prevent this.
The ongoing situation is causing hundreds of thousands of tons of agricultural produce to go down the drain, and the agricultural land is being considered 'no-man's land'.
"There is currently no deterrent against the perpetrators, the law enforcement agencies are failing to address the issue, so I believe that the punishment should be immediately aggravated as part of the response to the situation."
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