"My brother's keeper": Standing up to agricultural terrorism - by Boaz Haetzni

...The incident at Moshav Shekef reflects what happens when there is no security, not to mention that an incursion for the purpose of theft could wind up leading to murder. On the other hand, dozens of farms that have been assigned security by the Hashomer Hachadash volunteers are already breathing more easily. Anyone who thinks that mutual aid, volunteerism and contributing to society without expecting anything in return are old-fashioned values that have vanished, is wrong. The old, good Israel is alive and kicking, right now.

Boaz Haetzni..
Israel Hayom..
25 October '17..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/stand-up-to-agricultural-terrorism/

The first time I met Yoel Zilberman was in 2008 in Mitzpe Sando in the Galilee. My wife and I had come to the farm, a little place on a hilltop, and we saw the silo that was black as coal, two days after it was deliberately set on fire, along with the hay bales and tractor. It was a sight typical of the 1930s, the lawless days that predated the founding of the state.

Zilberman, an officer in the Shayetet 13 naval commando unit, had taken unpaid leave from the army to save his father's Galilee farm, which was vulnerable to theft and destruction perpetrated by the local Arabs. Zionism's fight for its life in the Galilee and the Negev doesn't play out in murders, but rather in "minor," daily acts of economic and agricultural terrorism. Fences are destroyed, herds and crops are subject to constant theft, irrigation systems are wrecked, and protection money is demanded – a combination of crimes that ultimately serve nationalist goals of keeping Israeli farmers down, making the profession unprofitable, and in the end ousting them from the land so it can be taken over.

Zilberman's success in saving his family's farm through presence and guard duty led him to found the group Hashomer Hachadash, out of the understanding that agricultural crime is a widespread national problem rather than a localized spat between neighbors. The group attracted civilians from all sectors and of all political orientations who were ready to donate their time and spend days and nights guarding fields and herds. My wife and I volunteer for guard duty and are pleased with the thanks from the farmers and the smile of relief on their faces at the knowledge that they'll be able to get a night's sleep, for a change.

"We're finally able to sleep at night"; "the farm has finally stopped losing money"; "I was about to get rid of the herd and then Hashomer Hachadash showed up" – these are some of the reactions I heard from the farmers whose livelihood was saved by the volunteers whose shirts read, "My brother's keeper," a kind of reference to Cain, who killed his brother Abel and played innocent, asking, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

Practical Zionism

Fresnozionism.org
25 March '10

In the early days of the Zionist enterprise, a group of Jewish Palestinians — in those days, the word ‘Palestinian’ referred to Jews — organized a group called hashomer, ‘guardians’ who defended Jewish farms and towns against marauding Arab bandits. Not everyone who applied to join was accepted, including David Ben-Gurion.

Today, despite the existence of a Jewish state with police, an army and numerous other security-related institutions, it’s become necessary to recreate this paramilitary organization.

In recent years, it has become harder and harder for Jewish farmers in the Galilee and Negev to survive, because they are assailed on a daily (or nightly) basis by Bedouins or Palestinian Arabs who steal everything that isn’t nailed down, destroy fences, set fire to crops, build squatter dwellings on farmers’ land, slaughter their animals in their fields, and threaten, beat or even try to kill anyone who tries to prevent them.

These aren’t ’settlements’, by the way (not that it matters), this is happening inside the Green Line.

(Read full post)
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