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PICK PEPPERS, PATROL FOR PALESTINIANS: THE ‘NEW GUARDIANS’ OF
ISRAELI AGRICULTURE
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Georgia Gee
September 16, 2024
972 Magazine
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_ With major government funding, Hashomer Hachadash sends volunteers
to cement Jewish control of open farmland — on both sides of the
Green Line. _
A volunteer at a pepper harvest in Moshav Hamra, an Israeli
settlement in the Jordan Valley, November 9, 2023., Dor
Pazuelo/Flash90
On farms across Israel, volunteers pick
[[link removed]] strawberries, plant
zucchinis, and harvest cucumbers. American college students pose with
peppers and pineapples while wearing T-shirts branded with the logo of
Hashomer Hachadash, an Israeli nonprofit organization. They have
become “the best ambassadors Israel could ask for,” Avi
Cohen-Scali, director general of the Diaspora Affairs Ministry,
recently said
[[link removed]].
“It’s moving and heartwarming.”
Hashomer Hachadash (“The New Guardian”) is the most prominent of
Israel’s volunteer-based “agricultural” organizations. For over
a decade and a half, its wide-ranging youth programs — from farming
to horseback riding — have helped it grow into one of the biggest
nonprofits in the country, with a budget exceeding $33 million
and allegedly [[link removed]] more than 120,000
annual volunteers.
Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, the organization has
stepped even further into the spotlight. The Hamas-led attack of
October 7 triggered a mass exodus
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foreign workers from Israel, and so Hashomer Hachadash encouraged
[[link removed]] volunteers
to come and save “Israel’s agriculture from ashes.” Thousands
from around the country — and the world — heeded the call and
rushed to assist Israeli farmers.
But the romantic farming scenes belie an agenda that goes beyond fruit
picking, and is in practice often about patrolling land to cement
Jewish-Israeli control — on both sides of the Green Line. It isn’t
the only organization doing this: last month, the United
States announced
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against Hashomer Yosh
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another Israeli NGO that sends volunteers to farming outposts in the
occupied West Bank and facilitates the violent theft of Palestinian
land.
Hashomer Hachadash is less open than Hashomer Yosh about its political
agenda, and has a far more mainstream reputation. And despite the
similar name, the two organizations appear to have no formal ties with
one another. But Hashomer Hachadash’s ambitions, activists argue,
are no less insidious than those of Hashomer Yosh.
A volunteer with Hashomer Hachadash participates in a Flag March in
Lod, December 5, 2021. (Oren Ziv)
“It’s always surprising to note how legitimate this organization
is among mainstream communities,” said Amnon Be’eri-Sulitzeanu,
co-executive director of The Abraham Initiative, a nonprofit promoting
Jewish-Arab partnership. In reality, Hashomer Hachadash has always
been “based on extreme national values, and wants to make sure Arabs
stay away from open spaces.”
This has become more evident since the war began, and the group has
been aided in its mission by the Israeli government. The Settlement
and National Missions Ministry, headed by Orit Strook, a far-right
leader who has denied
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existence of the Palestinian people, recently transferred
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million (nearly $13.5 million) to Hashomer Hachadash.
The grant aims to increase the group’s “presence in open areas”
— including in the West Bank — and to strengthen “community
resilience in the settlement area.” As part of the deal, Hashomer
Hachadash has committed to performing 15,000 guarding shifts. There
was no tender because the ministry determined that the organization
was the “sole supplier” in the field.
“They’ve received all the money from the government since October
7 [for this kind of work],” said Hagit Ofran, director of the
Settlement Watch project at Peace Now, an advocacy group. “All of a
sudden everything was going through Hashomer Hachadash.”
Hagit Ofran, Peace Now (Jstreet CC BY NC SA 2.0)
Hashomer Hachadash has also further expanded the scope of its policing
efforts, and not just on farms. In November, it established
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Guard” to train ultra-Orthodox communities in defense techniques
and assist
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procuring weapons licenses for guards. The Israeli police signed off
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the project.
When +972 approached the organization requesting more information
about its activities in the occupied West Bank and links to the
Israeli government, a lawyer sent a statement describing Hashomer
Hachadash as “an educational, Zionist, non-partisan, volunteer
organization that helps farmers from all over the country regardless
of religion, race, or gender in the fight against agricultural
crime.” The lawyer also threatened to sue us if we published this
article.
‘SHOWING PRESENCE’
The ideological roots of Hashomer Hachadash can be traced back to the
original Hashomer movement that was set up in the early twentieth
century to patrol Jewish settlements in Palestine. Its pioneer,
Alexander Zaïd, a Zionist immigrant from Russia, remains the symbol
on Hashomer Hachadash’s T-shirts.
Yoel Zilberman, the founder of Hashomer Hachadash, likes to tell the
story [[link removed]] of
how it all began. In 2007, his father announced he was going to sell
the family’s ranch in the lower Galilee because of constant theft on
their property by Bedouins, which, he says, the police failed to stop.
The young Zilberman, who was serving in the Israeli navy at the time,
couldn’t let this pass. He returned home and set up camp, with an
Israeli flag, a pile of books, and a tent. Along with some friends
from the military, he began patrolling his father’s land to fend off
“encroachers.”
From the outset, the organization’s actions went beyond guarding
farmland. It sought to use agriculture to bolster Jewish presence on
rural land, displacing Palestinians in the process. The mission
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to “to create a mental and strategic shift in Israeli society,
reforge the weakened link to the land and the ground, and increase the
importance of holding lands in the open territories in the Negev
[[link removed]] and Galilee
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northern Israel respectively that are home to large Palestinian
communities — by establishing observation posts near grazing land.
A monument to Alexander Zaïd near Bet She’arim National Park,
Israel. (Ilan Guy/Wikimedia Commons)
In March 2008, Hashomer Hachadash held its founding conference in the
Galilee. It was scheduled
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coincide with and obstruct
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Day events, when Palestinian citizens of Israel commemorate the 1976
killing of six unarmed protestors who were demonstrating against
Israel’s confiscation of nearly 5,000 acres of Palestinian land.
Several weeks later, the group organized a protest against a Nakba Day
commemoration, also in the Galilee, which quickly turned violent
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resulted in the arrest of 31 Palestinian attendees. Not long after
that, Mondoweiss reported
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members of the organization had illegally entered land belonging to a
Palestinian family in the West Bank.
In 2011, +972 reported
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the Israeli military was so impressed with Hashomer Hachadash that it
permitted dozens of recruits to defer their army service for a year to
volunteer with the group. The pre-military program included lessons on
horseback riding, cattle herding, and theories on “minorities in
Israel, security, and law enforcement.” Ram Shmueli, former head of
intelligence at the Israeli Air Force, then became chairman
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the organization. (For this story, the Israeli army told +972 they
have no connection with Hashomer Hachadash.)
“Hashomer Hachadash is continuing the militaristic tradition that
has long existed in Israeli culture, which you can also find in other
youth movements, but on a different scale,” said Dr. Nir Gazit, head
of the department of behavioral sciences at Ruppin Academic Center,
who has researched and written
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the organization.
During those early years, the organization was rapidly expanding: its
network of annual volunteers grew from 3,700 in 2013 to 21,450 in
2015. That year, it laid out a plan
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further establish 100 observation posts in the Negev and Galilee over
the following five years, with “two to four guardsmen patrolling the
land [at night] in a manner that openly shows their presence.” It
also established
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“affiliated agricultural schools,” which have the highest military
enlistment rates in the country.
Hashomer Hachadash receives Israel’s Presidential Award for
Volunteerism, June 19, 2024. (Wikimedia Commons)
A GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED MILITIA
Alongside an exponential rise in volunteer recruitment, the next few
years also saw Hashomer Hachadash entrench its relationship with the
Israeli government. In 2017, it received a massive influx of state
funding when the Religious Services Ministry’s Jewish Identity
Administration — set up by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett
— expanded
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project called “Zionism and Judaism.”
The money went toward some programs in schools and others involving
Jewish youth from around the world, which were designed “to
strengthen the link between the Jewish people, its heritage, and its
land.” The funding also supported “guard duty and assistance to
farmers and cattle ranchers.”
Bennett was on the organization’s board
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2010 and was photographed wearing the group’s T-shirt during his
tenure as economics minister a few years later. In 2022, during his
premiership, Bennett announced
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he was aiming to establish a civilian armed force that could be based,
in part, on Hashomer Hachadash. After the Israeli election at the end
of that year, the new national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir,
presented a similar plan while looking into the possibility
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recruiting volunteers from Hashomer Hachadash.
Even Israel’s national security adviser has said that the
organization should be working alongside the country’s police
forces. “The volunteering spirit of Hashomer Hachadash should join
the organizational capabilities of the Border Police, the Israel
Police, and all security authorities,” Tzachi Hangebi said
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a conference last year. “This is the real equalizer.”
“The very idea that Hashomer Hachadash helped start — [that]
civilians do policing — it’s very problematic,” said Ofran from
Peace Now.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with National Security
Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi at a press conference, September 28, 2023.
(Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Meanwhile, Hashomer Hachadash appears to be expanding its presence in
the West Bank. In 2022, Local Call reported
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the organization was operating on privately-owned Palestinian land in
East Jerusalem. Last year, according to the Hebrew publication Kenes
Media, the group embarked
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an “accelerated process” of establishing activities in all of the
Jordan Valley’s settlements. Individuals wearing Hashomer Hachadash
clothing have also been documented participating in settler violence
and attempting to force Palestinians off their land
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“They are walking a fine line,” Gazit told +972. “The potential
for violence is constantly there but they intentionally try to
whitewash it, to keep it behind the scenes — not as part of their
official practices.”
Since October 7, Israeli settlers have stepped up their efforts
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displace dozens of Palestinian shepherding communities in the northern
Jordan Valley, in collaboration with the security forces and the
Jordan Valley Regional Council. While Hashomer Hachadash’s role in
this remains opaque, the organization continues to hold
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volunteering days in the area.
“They’ve said before that they don’t work beyond the Green Line
— but they do,” said Dror Etkes, founder of the Israeli
organization Kerem Navot which monitors settlement activity in the
West Bank. “I’ve seen them in the northern part of the Jordan
Valley, which used to be a bit quieter [in terms of settler violence]
compared to other parts of the West Bank. This is not the case
anymore.”
Jewish settlers at a ceremony unveiling the cornerstone for a new
neighborhood in the West Bank settlement of Moshav Gitit, Jordan
Valley on January 2, 2014. (Uri Lenz/Flash90)
Zilberman, the organization’s founder, said
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this year that as part of the effort to strengthen Israel’s grip in
rural areas, he was preparing to plant a vineyard “right on the
Syrian border fence, 100 meters from it.” He added: “I’m not
afraid, on the contrary. This is precisely the time.”
BANKROLLED BY AMERICAN BILLIONAIRES
From the start, Hashomer Hachadash has been heavily supported by U.S.
foundations. In 2010, over half of the group’s funding came from the
late billionaire Irving Moskowitz and his wife Cherna, who heavily
supported
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groups in East Jerusalem. Through their American foundation, the pair
donated over NIS 1.4 million (nearly $380,000) to the organization
from 2010 to 2013.
In more recent years, there have been at least half a dozen donations
to Hashomer Hachadash from American foundations that were sent via the
Jewish National Fund. In 2021 and 2022, Donors Trust — an infamous
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American foundation — gave
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donations totaling $140,000 to the organization. Most strikingly, the
late Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam, who have been among the
biggest donors to Donald Trump as well as supporting numerous
right-wing causes in Israel, gave over $6 million to Hashomer
Hachadash between 2019 and 2022 through their California-based
foundation.
After October 7, Hashomer Hachadash positioned
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as the savior of Israeli agriculture and received a dramatic uptick in
funding from the Jewish diaspora. In February, Hashomer
Hachadash announced
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would provide emergency interest-free loans of up to NIS 100,000 for
Israeli farmers in the areas near Gaza and the Lebanese border —
funded by donations from Jews in the diaspora.
The Jewish Federations of North America, an umbrella organization
representing hundreds of Jewish communities, gave
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“in response to the agricultural crisis currently unfolding because
of the war.” In March, Boston-based Combined Jewish Philanthropies
also gave
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emergency grant of $250,000. And the Ruderman Family Foundation, a
private philanthropic foundation in Boston, gave
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for “The People’s Guard” project.
“You see the magnitude of this organization and the way it has very
elegantly succeeded in penetrating wide sectors of Israeli society,”
Gazit noted. “It has a lot of power, and very strong political
backing. It’s very difficult not to ask — where is this
going?”
_GEORGIA GEE is an investigative journalist covering human rights
issues, environmental abuse and surveillance. Her work has appeared in
print, podcast and documentaries, including for The Intercept, Foreign
Policy and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. She
was previously the lead investigative researcher for Ronan Farrow at
The New Yorker and HBO, and an editor for the Organized Crime and
Corruption Reporting Project._
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_We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The
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_This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the
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