“If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.” (Proverbs 25:21)
Gershon Baskin, the founder and co-chairman of the Israel Palestine Creative Regional Initiatives (IPCRI), has raised $93,000 to be used to buy surplus Israeli potatoes for Palestinians in Gaza who are hurting due to the aftermath of the Hamas bombing of Israel.
In 2006, Baskin unofficially, without governmental authorization or support, opened back channels with Hamas to help negotiate the release of the kidnapped Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.
Gershon Baskin, the founder and co-chairman of the Israel Palestine Creative Regional Initiatives (IPCRI)
When he learned that the Israeli Vegetable Growers’ Association had a 5,000 ton surplus of potatoes slated for destruction, he immediately thought of the Palestinians suffering without electricity, food, and homes.
Instead of the government paying the farmers half a shekel a kilo to destroy the crop, he reasoned, why not raise the money and pay the farmers for the surplus crop so the potatoes could help the hungry in Gaza?
It could be a win-win situation, he thought. The farmers can’t sell the produce anyway and they would get the same money they would receive from the government for the crop. The people in Gaza who haven’t been able to grow crops because many fields have been bombed out will receive much needed food.
Even Gaza farmers that were spared the rocket attacks of the latest conflict are suffering from a lack of water and electricity. One farmer explained to the Jerusalem Post that these factors combined with the risks of working in an open field have all but totally destroyed this year’s crop. He added that the strawberry crop was particularly affected due to a lack of water.
The case is similar for Israeli farmers located near the Strip who also have been unable to work their fields. While Israel’s government has already set up a compensation package to help these farmers, it remains unclear if Hamas will offer anything similar to its people.
Possibly reflecting the feelings of other farmers in the Gaza Strip, the farmer interviewed by the Jerusalem Post said that “the war is very bad” and that “all the people here are very sad.” He added, “I hope that in the future everything will be solved between our friends.”
Men stock the shelves with potatoes in a market in Jerusalem.
To purchase the surplus potatoes for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Baskin figured that he needed a total of $750,000, so he turned to the Internet to start raising funds.
“Within minutes I got 20 or 30 emails from people who said they were willing to contribute,” he said. “So I just said, yalla, let’s do one of those crowd-sourcing campaigns.”
Although he didn’t reach his goal by the cut-off date for the campaign, Baskin was impressed with the response that his effort did receive.
“It was all kinds of people,” he says of the donors. “There were a lot of Jews, both in Israel and America and Britain.” (Times of Israel)
Despite the shortfall of money, Baskin said he will overcome the difficulties in getting the surplus potatoes to those in need in the Gaza Strip.
