Farmers across country protest tariff reforms

Hundreds of farmers and agricultural workers demonstrated at 24 intersections across the country Thursday to protest a government decision to push forward controversial reforms to the agriculture sector.

The legislation, which deals with livestock breeding and taxes on produce, has been inserted into the Arrangements Bill, one of three bills that make up the 2015-16 budget plan. The clauses’ inclusion in the Arrangements Bill makes it all but certain they will be passed, as Israeli law stipulates that a Knesset that fails to pass a state budget must disband and go to elections. The Knesset has until November 19 to pass the budget.

The reform favors subsidies to farmers over tariffs on agricultural imports. Treasury officials say it will help create competition and lower costs for Israeli consumers, but the protesters said Thursday the loss of protective tariffs would be a devastating blow to domestic farmers, and would not result in lower prices.

The demonstrators also urged the government to introduce legislation that would allow farmers to employ more foreign workers, the Walla news site reported.

“Agriculture [in Israel] is experiencing a huge crisis,” Meir Tzur, chairman of the Israel Farmers’ Federation, said in an interview with Army Radio. “Every year, between 10% and 15% of farmers leave their profession,” he claimed. “Agriculture in Israel is deteriorating. The government continues to place restrictions on us every year, and today we say enough, and want to save the agriculture, first of all for the farmers, but also for the entire country.”

Zionist Union MK Eitan Broshi, who participated in a demonstration at the Nahalal Junction in the country’s north, said agricultural workers were considering stepping up protests and halting supplies of fresh produce to Israeli supermarkets should their demands not be met.

“We are giving the government a last chance to go back to negotiations and dialogue, to a path that will make agriculture possible, and settlement and the fulfillment of Zionism,” Broshi said, according to the NRG news site.

“Agriculture is security and food, and guarantees the national resilience of Israel,” he continued. “Farming communities mark the country’s borders and provide a Zionist and economic anchor to [periphery] residents. Agriculture provides thousands of jobs for the residents of the periphery.”

Following one of the demonstrations in the south, Route 40 toward Mitzpe Ramon was closed to traffic.

The Arrangements Bill includes hundreds of stipulations and legislative changes relating to Israel’s budget. Last week, the Knesset’s legal adviser Eyal Yinon wrote to the parliament’s speaker MK Yuli Edelstein that the Arrangements Bill is simply too large to be read by lawmakers and contains too many reforms unconnected to the budget — constituting a violation of the speaker’s own rules for minimizing the scope and length of the bill.