Volunteering to help Israeli farmers
Added on 11 December 2023
For the past month, I have been volunteering one day a week to help save Israeli agriculture in the hard-hit south. There are many kibbutzim and moshavim that need help and I feel like this is the way I can contribute to my country’s war efforts.
I have found places to volunteer by following dedicated Facebook groups, and by visiting websites that advertise volunteering opportunities. A few back-and-forth chats on WhatsApp and the details are arranged. Where to report, and at what hour. ‘Wear long pants’, the advertisements state. ‘Bring food for the day.’ ‘Come with a good spirit’. And the volunteers come.
My first volunteering was in a pomelo orchard jointly owned by a business entity and Kibbutz Bror Hayil. Before the war, Thai workers worked in the orchards, along with some Bedouins. Seventy percent of the crop is for export; the rest is for the local market. I set to work picking the thick-skinned green spheres. My arms were quickly scratched-up by the thorny branches. Along with other individual volunteers, the picking that day was done by a delegation of Knesset members, and a busload of soldiers, who picked the fruit with rifles still slung over their shoulders.
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