Every shmitta year brings back the debate and argument of what the right and moral thing is to do about eating vegetables. One of the main solutions for sourcing vegetables during the shmitta year is importing them from the farmers in the Palestinian Authority territories.
And that brings the arguments of not buying Palestinian produce so as not to support terrorism (in addition to claims of tainted vegetables).
The argument in return is that these people only care about not buying vegetables for the Palestinians during the shmitta year, but during the other 6 years they indiscriminately buy vegetables in the supermarkets and shuks without even knowing where the vegetables come from, and unknowingly they are buying those same Palestinian vegetables.
Those days might be over.
According to INN, the Palestinian Authority implemented a ban on Israeli agricultural imports, specifically banning cattle and livestock from Israel, last September.
The defense establishment has tried for months to persuade the Palestinians to revoke the boycott, yet to date they have refused to do so. This has caused a disparity in trade, with the Israelis continuing to import from the Palestinians but the Palestinians refusing to import from Israel. Israeli farmers and breeders have bee suffering because of it.
This is a basic trade issue that countries all around the world deal with on a regular basis.
Minister of Defense Naftali Bennett has now decided to reciprocate with a boycott of Palestinian produce.
So, if the boycott holds, and if the Palestinians do not revoke their boycott (which would lead to Israel revoking theirs), this coming shmitta will require other solutions, and will also see the end of this oft-repeated argument...
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