For a long time, the farmers in Kibbutz Ein Harod United labored to pick the cotton in their fields and pile it in the big bales, but in one moment - everything went down the drain.
On New Year's Eve, rioters came and vandalized 75 with cotton bats weighing a ton.
The cotton was scattered everywhere, and the damage was estimated at hundreds of thousands of shekels for the farmers.
This is another case of agricultural terrorism that occurs in the Negev, the Galilee and Judea and Samaria.
"The serious case presents us again with the difficult and sad reality, and demands from us the fair treatment towards the farmers," says the "Hashomer HaShevid" organization.
According to them, "Terrorist incidents are happening under our noses, in the fields, vineyards and orchards, by terrorists who want to scare, threaten, expel. The dictionary definition of terrorism is terrorizing through acts of violence. This incident is vandalism for the sake of vandalism, terrorism for the sake of bullying and terrorizing the farmers".
In the last decade, following the security situation in Gaza, farmers and business owners in the Gaza Strip began to receive compensation in times of emergency for the damage caused by terrorism.
Now, the farmers in the Negev, the Galilee, and the Yosh are also demanding to receive compensation for the great damage caused to them as a result of the agricultural terrorism. Farmers who are in the line of fire rightly receive compensation to restore the agricultural and economic destruction, but the agricultural terrorism in the Negev and the Galilee does not receive the same response as that in the surrounding Gaza.
Ballots of cotton, Ein Harod // Photo: HaShomer the New,
loss of personal security
Many farmers suffer serious damage to their property: looting, vandalism, destruction, theft.
Actions designed to exhaust the farmer, threaten him and cause him to lose his personal security and abandon the land.
But this terrorism is not recognized by those entrusted with the security of the country - and the farmers remain destitute.
"You have to understand that currently a farmer who is damaged by agricultural terrorism has no compensation," explains Yoel Zilberman, CEO of "The New Guardian". "The damages can reach tens of thousands of shekels, and there is no system that backs them up.
It's time for the state to accept responsibility.
"If the state is unable to provide protection for farmers, at least give them an insurance infrastructure. Just last week we spoke at a conference in collaboration with 'Israel Hayom' about the loss of governance in the open areas, and now we are getting a living example of this."
"The legislation applicable to farmers surrounding Gaza should be applied to farmers throughout the entire country - from Dan to Eilat," the "New Guardian" is now demanding.
"The law of Nahal Oz is the law of Ein Harod. It is not possible for farmers to have to absorb hundreds of thousands of shekels worth of damage themselves without any support network. Just before the elections, it is time to put farmers across the country as a priority."
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