Volunteering to help Israeli farmers

Added on 11 December 2023

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Photo by Ellis Shuman, The Times of Israel

“I’ve been here for 60 years and I’m just not going to continue,” said the tired-looking moshavnik from the south. His Thai workers had fled, a rocket had hit one of his greenhouses, his pepper plants’ leaves were wilted, and the vegetables were dying on their stems. We were there, picking what we could to salvage his crop.

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.