Telalim junction: Farmers burn tires
צילום: הרצל יוסף
Farmers protest quotas on foreign workers
Agriculturists outraged over produce rotting in fields block major junctions in protest against government
Farmers from all over Israel demonstrated Sunday at 13 major junctions throughout the country, in protest against quotas limiting the number of foreign workers allowed into Israel.
The protestors claim the government's quotas violate promises made to them in the past, specifically that the state would not close Israel's gates to new workers entirely but rather decrease the number of permits gradually.
The farmers burned tires, held "funerals for agriculture", and blocked roads to hand out fruit to angry drivers with notes explaining their grievances.
Former MK Avshalom Vilan, who heads the Israeli Farmers' Federation (IFF), said, "We are not asking for additional workers, but only to allow 5,000 workers from Thailand to enter instead of those who have finished working and gone back. The government promised this in agreements signed just a few months ago."
Many of the farmers reiterated this claim. Omer Tzifman, of Bitzaron village, told Ynet that he believed the government had cheated them, and that fruit ripening on the trees was rotting away for a lack of ready hands.
"We currently have just five workers. That means the fruit is not picked on time or exported on time," he said.
Mordechai Azra, who grows cucumbers in Ahituv village, said his product was also going to waste due to the cutbacks.
"I have a quota of six workers. Two left Israel according to the law and one ran off," he said. "Israelis won't work and you can't trust Palestinians because there are closures all the time."
He said the trouble would eventually harm the average consumer more than anyone else, due to skyrocketing prices on produce.
