Strawberry Fields—Forever?

By Mohammed Omer


	Gaza farmer Ahmed Felfel harvests his strawberry crop despite the threat from nearby Israeli tanks and weapons (Photo M. Omer).

DESPITE THE presence some 300 yards away of a two-story-tall bulldozer next to a menacing tank gun which tracks their every move, Hassan Felfel, 14, and his father, Ahmed, 53, diligently farm their fields, picking, stemming and cleaning the brilliant red strawberries they’ve nurtured to maturity over the past year. The father and son know the Israeli tank and bulldozer are positioned on their field not for their protection, but as a threat. The family’s work and livelihood could disappear in an instant, if, on a soldier’s whim, they suddenly are reclassified as a “security threat” while picking crops, justifying an Israeli attack on them, warranted or otherwise.

Throughout Europe, Gaza is known for the quality of its produce. Its soil contains an ideal mix of sand, clay and mulch, augmented by ample sun, predictable rainfall and the sweet water from Gaza’s wells. Pesticides are rarely necessary. This combination produces a firm, large and sweet berry with a brilliant scarlet hue—one prized throughout Europe’s higher-end markets and restaurants.

Prior to 1967, the region harvested a multitude of crops, supplying canneries and markets locally and abroad. While the majority of these businesses were destroyed under occupation, a few have managed to survive. After the free and fair election of a Hamas government in January 2006, however, Israel laid siege to Gaza, shutting its borders and blockading nearly all transit from entering or leaving.

Meanwhile the occupying power continued to fire missiles and tank shells into Gaza’s neighborhoods, cities and farmlands, tightening its stranglehold on daily life. When the Israeli- and U.S.-backed Fatah militias failed to overthrow the government in Gaza last summer, as they had succeeded in doing in the West Bank, the Israeli government fully isolated the 23-mile-long strip of land bordering the Mediterranean. Cut off from the world, all of Gaza’s industries now suffer, with those dependent on selling perishable goods becoming insolvent in record numbers.

For the Felfel family, which includes 14 children, tending their land and strawberry crop is a centuries-old practice, their land having been passed down from generation to generation since ancient times. Even though the family knows that as a result of Israel’s blockade their crops have little chance of reaching market, they honor the traditional imperative of tending the land and putting in a good day’s work. Nevertheless, they live and work each day in the face of constant fear.

“We are alive, but dead at the same time,” stated the senior Felfel.

The city of Beit Lahiya where he and his family live is in northern Gaza, near the Israeli border—just a few miles from the southern Israeli town of Sderot. Since the homemade rockets used by the Palestinian resistance have a very limited range, the militants often retaliate against Israeli Hellfire missile and tank shell attacks on Gaza’s cities from the fields around Beit Lahiya. Sderot remains one of the few locations within Israel their crude rockets can reach.

Significantly, the attacks from Gaza, which numbered some 200 during the week following Jan. 18—after Israel had killed at least 39 Palestinians, including members of a Gaza wedding party, in four days—dwindled to fewer than three a day while the Rafah border was breached and Gazans were able to shop and visit relatives on the Egyptian side of the border.

Nevertheless, Israeli occupation forces continue to attack Gaza with missiles, then bulldoze, raze and demolish anything that may conceivably be used as a launching pad, regardless of whether it was used as such in the past. Even when innocent civilians are harmed by mistake, the Israeli government rarely compensates the victim.

Although the Felfel family has no ties to Hamas, Fatah or resistance groups in Gaza, “Israeli tanks and bulldozers demolished my irrigation system, greenhouses and equipment,” Felfel said. The last time they attacked his three-and-a-half acre farm, he noted, they destroyed most of his seedlings. “This year is most painful,” he lamented, inspecting a plump berry between his forefinger and thumb. “The losses we’ll incur this strawberry season—how I grieve.”

Felfel estimated this year’s losses would be between $35,000 and $45,000 as a result of the Israeli border closures alone. “We have to accept what we get—we have no other option,” he sighed, shaking his head with an air of defeatism.


Some of the strawberries Gaza farmers will be unable to export to Europe this year (Photo M. Omer).

In an average year Gaza’s 6,000 strawberry farmers harvest nearly 2,000 tons of fruit, translating to $9.8 million in gross revenues and a profit margin of 20 percent. Two-thirds of the crop is shipped out through Agrexco, the 50 percent Israeli government-owned agricultural exchange which Gaza’s food and floral growers are required to use. From Israel the fruits are sent to European produce exchanges and distributed to various countries under the brand name Coral.

In November the border was opened briefly, allowing eight truckloads—two with fresh-cut flowers and six of strawberries—to exit.

According to Agrexco Vice President Malachy J. Malinovich, the reason more were not exported is “because Palestinian producers have decided not to continue shipping.”

A well-placed government source who requested anonymity pointed out that “technically, the Israeli claim that ‘the quota available for strawberries was not met’ is factually correct.”

Last November, he explained in an e-mail, Israeli authorities allowed a limited amount of exports, namely the above-mentioned eight trucks. After a short period, however, strawberry growers abandoned efforts to meet their larger quota. Among the factors they cited were lack of protection from the weather for their products, uncertain waiting times at the border crossings, and higher production costs for proper packaging. Not only did it become too costly to export their produce, far outstripping potential income, but under these conditions the quality of the produce could not be maintained or guaranteed.

Confirming this assessment, Ahmed Al Shafi, director of Gaza’s Agriculture Cooperative—recipient of the European “Good Agricultural Practice” (GAP) certificate, which applies to all Gaza’s agricultural exports—estimated that in just one instance in December 2007, 12 tons of strawberries were destroyed after being held up at the Karem Shalom crossing (Hebrew for Karm Abu Salem). “The Israeli crossing is bad, ill-equipped, and is not suitable for the export of strawberries,” he explained. “The sun and dust rot our strawberries.”

As a result of the blockade, most of Gaza’s perishable crops sit, rotting, at the border crossings. Although Gaza has both an air and sea port, Israel prohibits ships or planes from leaving Gaza. The Rafah border crossing with Egypt remains resealed due to U.S. financial pressure on Egypt. In January, at Israeli insistence, Washington, withheld $100 million of its monthly $200 million aid package to Egypt to force the reclosing of the border, thus eliminating Gaza’s only non-Israeli conduit to the outside world.

Large amounts of Gaza’s 2,000 tons of strawberries have rotted while waiting at the border, Al Shafi said, with the rest sold in local markets at low prices that don’t cover the cost of production. Whether or not they are able to see their crop, Gaza’s farmers must still pay for the sheeting, crates and supplies necessary to package their products for export.

“Now we sell a kilo of strawberries for 50 cents,” he said. “We used to sell a kilo for $4.50 to Agrexco.” He and the farmers are aware of the mark-up Agrexco charges to sells their products in Europe, he added.

Providing historical perspective, Al Shafi noted that “In 2006 approximately 40 to 45 tons of strawberries were exported from Gaza daily—nearly 84 percent of Gaza’s projected capacity. But this season, by comparison, of 2,000 tons of strawberries produced, we were able to export only 100 tons.”

This year, moreover, has a special significance, Al Shafi explained. Shimita, a biblical requirement occurring every seventh year, requires Orthodox Jews to eat foods produced by non-Jewish sources. As a result, most Jewish markets look to their Arab neighbors to fulfill this requirement. With its borders closed, however, Gaza’s produce cannot be exported to Israel.

Al Shafi also worries that European markets may eventually replace Gazan produce with that of other nations which do not have to contend with occupation, border closures and other obstacles. An additional threat to the farmers is the loss of expertise, which Al Shafi refers to as the “emigration of experience,” as the best farmers leave Gaza for other countries, such as Egypt, where it is easier and safer to grow their crops. This results in the loss of jobs in Gaza, as well as an increase in social problems.

According to Al Shafi, a man’s basic necessity includes “to work and live in dignity on his land. Otherwise,” he emphasized, “it becomes difficult for a man to convince his sons to choose a life as a farmer over firing rockets instead.”

In an attempt to forestall such actions, Al Shafi, who is privileged to have received a special exit permit out of Gaza, embarked on a tour of European embassies and meetings with American officials in Tel Aviv. He prays his efforts will open the borders for the farmers. Additionally, he continues to write letters to the United Nations, European Union, Quartet envoy Tony Blair and others who may help. “We Palestinians and Israelis are neighbors; we are farmers on the ground and should seek a way to co-exist,” Al Shafi concluded.

Meanwhile, with thousands of workers laid off, the World Bank warns of an imminent collapse of Gaza’s economy. Seemingly indifferent to the unfolding humanitarian disaster, Israel and the United States continue to press for an all-or-nothing solution, leaving Gaza’s 1.5 million people, nearly 900,000 of them children, appealing to the Netherlands, Sweden and other European Union members for mercy and help.

“If we don’t find support, we will go under,” said Felfel, who continues to struggle on despite the fact that he can no longer afford fuel, fertilizers, seeds and plastic nylon for planting.

For the father and son picking strawberries under a gunner’s sights, the Felfels continue to challenge Israel’s military occupation, determined to remain on their land, harvest their crops and—one day, they hope—again export their strawberries to Europe.

Mohammed Omer, winner of New America Media’s Best Youth Voice award, reports from the Gaza Strip, where he maintains the Web site <www.rafahtoday.org>. He can be reached at <gazanews@yahoo.com>.