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Locust Swarms Move from Negev into Jerusalem Corridor; Threaten Orange Groves

December 22, 1958
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Locust swarms that last week invaded the Negev moved northward this week-end into the top of the desert and into the Jerusalem Corridor region, threatening orange groves, one of the largest foreign currency earners of the Israeli economy.

Meanwhile, the Chief Rabbinate gave settlers a special dispensation to work through the Sabbath in order to spray the red locust swarms with insecticides. However, the authorization provided that the sprays should be of a strength that would merely knock down the pests so that they might be killed on Sunday and not on the Sabbath. More poison spraying planes have been assigned to wage the war against the locusts.

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