Unsupervised agricultural produce from the Palestinian Authority was seized over the weekend at the Trans-Samaria checkpoint. It is a truck carrying 19 tons of vegetables.
A truck carrying 19 tons of unsupervised agricultural produce from the Palestinian Authority was seized at the Trans-Samaria checkpoint over the weekend. This, as part of an initiated enforcement activity of the Central Unit for Enforcement and Investigations in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (crackdown), to thwart smuggling of agricultural produce in a shmita year. Along about 130 km, until it was finally stopped near the checkpoint. According to the suspicion, the goods, which include cabbage, lettuce, parsley and more, were smuggled for marketing in Kiryat Gat, for use by populations that do not consume food according to a sale permit. For a unit from previous incidents, detained for questioning.
The smuggled vegetables were transferred for destruction according to a doctor’s instructions, due to the concern for both the health of the various plant branches and the health of the plants. All plant products imported to Israel are inspected and supervised by the Plant Protection Supervisors of the Ministry of Agriculture at each of the ports of entry into Israel, in order to ensure that it does not carry pests, lesions and pesticide residues. The introduction of produce without such supervision, may cause irreversible damage to local agriculture, and poses a danger to public health.
The cracking unit in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development works day and night to ensure that agricultural produce that endangers public health will not be marketed, especially in a shemita year, under which sponsorship increases. More than 310 tons of vegetables were seized and 65 smuggling attempts were thwarted.
Roy Kliger, director of the Central Unit for Enforcement and Investigations in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, notes that “naturally in Shmita we are witnessing more attempts to smuggle agricultural produce into Israel, which requires us in the crackdown to initiate operational and intelligence activities that thwart these attempts.” “Marketing of such products is a violation of the law, and moreover it poses a danger to public health, as well as to the various branches of agriculture.”
Smuggling vegetables. Illustration
Photo: Ministry of Agriculture
Smuggling vegetables. Illustration
Photo: Ministry of Agriculture
Smuggling vegetables. Illustration
Photo: Ministry of Agriculture