In Moshav Margaliot on the northern border, Yoni Yacobi stood helpless in front of trees laden with cherries, bending under the load of the sweet fruit that no one will pick. Not far from there, in the orchards of Kibbutz Manara, apple trees burned, and the fire could not be put out due to fear of rocket fire from Hezbollah terrorists.
"The fruit is destroyed because the ministers of agriculture, finance and labor do not give us permission to bring Thai workers," Yacobi accused. "They have also destroyed our health. They don't allow farmers to live here. When I come to ask for compensation, they will tell me that I don't deserve it because I didn't work here."
He adds that the cherries "are completely red. If I don't pick them all in the next two or three days I'll lose them. I'm picking with the three Thai workers who help me and I need more working hands, but there's no one to talk to. I picked the first variety, and now I'm going to pick the second variety, but I am losing them because it's cooking on the trees. Only volunteers have contacted me, but I'm not ready to take a risk and let them into the field, it's not picking cherries, it's a profession."
On Thursday night, the fire burned in the orchards of Kibbutz Menara for hours. It could not be extinguished due to the danger from Hezbollah rocket fire. Miraculously, the fire died out of its own accord, but it destroyed 30 dunams of young apple trees that were planted three years ago and have jut now begun to bear fruit available for sale.
"We invested millions in this orchard and it has all been destroyed," Orli Yitzhak, the farm coordinator in the kibbutz on the border with Lebanon, said sadly. "We still don't know what the damage really is to all the orchards in the vicinity from the heat spread by the fire, because it is very dangerous to get there."
In many areas of the kibbutz, it is not possible to pick fruit and it remains on the trees and rots. In the orchards that can be harvested from a security point of view, there are not enough hands to help with this.