Four people were injured and several arrests were made in violent demonstrations by farmers in widely separated parts of the country Sunday.
There was no connection between the two incidents in the North and South. They were sparked by different issues, but both arose out of the current difficult economic plight of the agricultural community.
In the North, Galilee farmers and school-children pelted police in Safed with eggs in a violent protest against the government’s policy towards the moshavim. One protester was sent to the hospital for medical treatment, and a number of arrests were made.
Meanwhile, in the Shalom region of the western Negev, opposite the Gaza Strip, some 150 farmers blocked the main road to the Rafah border checkpoint with vegetable trucks, to protest the delay in payment of government compensation for frost damage to their crops in freezing temperatures at the onset of winter.
One policeman and two local residents were injured but released from hospital after receiving first-aid treatment.
The Agriculture Ministry, meanwhile, announced that advance payments totaling some $17 million would be made this week to farmers whose crops were damaged by frost.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
