Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel, over 80% of Palestinians worked in the agricultural sector. Since 1948, over 70% of Palestinian land was expropriated by the state. This loss of ownership, combined with a lack of necessary agricultural development to sustain, replenish and develop overused land has led to extreme economic hardship. This harsh political and economic reality has caused a radical drop in the number of Arab farmers who rely on agriculture as their main source of income. Further, Arab farmers are frequently denied their rights: although Arab farmers represent about 30% of the total number of Israeli farmers they only own 16% of the agricultural land in Israel and only receive less than 3% of the water supply. Arab farmers rarely receive governmental subsidies for research and development that are available to Jewish farmers.
Palestinian women have traditionally worked as semi-skilled manual laborers in the agricultural process. Women are thus greater exposed to environmental dangers in the field. Women have been excluded from the managerial and marketing aspects of farming. Women must deal with these gender specific issues in addition to the wider problem of the Arab farming sector.
Arab farmers are hard pressed to compete in the Israeli market and this will ultimately leave a once prodigious sector with no viable livelihood. Highly skilled, and experts in their field, different circumstances would allow Arab farmers to improve their standard of living and make important advances and contributions to the agricultural industry. Ahali is already working with a small number of Palestinian farmers inside Israel who are demonstrating the potential for agricultural success in the Arab sector.
Within the country's agricultural industry, Arab farmers are the only community not yet organized. Moreover, they are not actually represented in Israeli farming organizations.
That is why Ahali established its Arab Farmers Project: to address the impoverishment caused by the economic deterioration of Arab rural agricultural communities, and to provide a framework for Arab farmers to organize themselves and acquire the necessary information, skills and tools they need to defend their rights and interests.
The Project
Ahali has initiated a nationwide project aimed at promoting Arab agriculture, rural development, farmers’ rights with a specific focus on women in the Arab farming sector in Israel in order to build a stronger, more productive community of self-reliant farmers and citizens who can actively work to attain equal rights. The project will use a grassroots approach based on the principles of community mobilization, organization and development. The project methodology includes education, research, development, and advocacy and will culminate in the establishment of the first national organization of Arab Farmers. The Union will be a representative body to serve the interests of Arab farmers, raise their issues in front of the Ministry of Agriculture and to ensure their representation in Israeli farmer's organizations.
Project goals
1) Mobilization of farmers:
Establishing local agricultural committees
Establishing a national organization of Arab farmers
Participating in the Union of Israeli farmers
Lobbying and defending the rights of Arab farmers, particularly in relation to the ongoing problem of land confiscation.
2) Establishing development projects
Improving the quality of products
Developing successful marketing techniques
3) Providing an information center
Establishing a bi-monthly agricultural magazine
Publishing regular technical newsletters in Arabic
Providing uptodate information on economic development and marketing techniques
4) Training and capacity building
Training in economic, technical and administrative fields
Training women in order to improve their technical and administrative skills, which have been neglected as women rarely assume senior positions in the farming sector
Providing information and training in environmental awareness and hazards, of particular relevance to women who represent a large proportion of the labor force in the fields.
Encouraging agricultural awareness and knowledge amongst school pupils and working with all family members in order to strengthen the ties between the community and the use of the land.
5) Cooperation with Palestinians in the Occupied Territories
Exchange of expertise and experience between Palestinians inside Israel and Palestinians in the Occupied Territories
Distribution and marketing of homemade produce on both Israeli and Palestinian markets
Arab Farmers
Project
