“We’re at a crucial historic opportunity that must not be missed; the time has come to apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” Israel’s Agriculture and Food Security Minister Avi Dichter said on Sunday.
He made the statement during a rare meeting with the heads of the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization of municipal councils of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria. According to the council, the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the “challenges and opportunities of developing and promoting agriculture in the region.”
Dichter presented a “2050 Food Security Plan” to increase domestic agriculture production by 33% in the next decade, and stressed the “strategic significance” of cultivating farming land in the country.
The ministry “under my leadership is aimed at fostering prosperous and thriving agriculture from the [Mediterranean] sea to the Jordan River,” Dichter said at the meeting.
“Thanks to young and energetic farmers, significant land reserves and our assistance in the ministry by lowering water prices, providing access to advanced agricultural knowledge and technology and allocating land, we will be able to move forward together toward a country that no enemy will surprise on a clear day by disrupting imports and leaving our citizens facing a crisis,” he continued.
“Fortunately, I find a serious partner in the Yesha Council for the long-term plans we are leading,” he continued.
“A meeting like this with the heads of the Yesha Council is something even the oldest members of the ministry do not remember. This is a revolution stemming from my clear policy in the ministry—strengthening agriculture in Judea and Samaria and providing significant support for agricultural activities and the farmers themselves,” Dichter concluded.
Yesha Council chairman Israel Ganz talked about the difficulties that Judea and Samaria farmers face.
“Judea and Samaria can stand at the forefront of Israeli agriculture. But to achieve this, bureaucratic barriers must be removed, and the communities must be allowed to manage land and agricultural resources just like anywhere else in the country. One of our main challenges stems from the fact that Israeli law does not apply to Judea and Samaria. The time has come to apply sovereignty—the moment is ripe,” said Ganz.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Dichter announced the establishment of a professional team that will coordinate between the council and the ministry with the aim of promoting the farming industry in Judea and Samaria.
Dichter’s support for Judea and Samaria farmers has been evident throughout his tenure as minister of agriculture.
In 2023, he applauded farmers’ role in protecting state lands in Judea and Samaria following a tour of Jewish-owned agricultural sites in Samaria’s Binyamin region.
“We came here to learn up close about the farms, which I view as the best guardians of Israeli state land in Area C,” the minister said, referring to one of the administrative zones established under the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.
Dichter continued: “There are no better guardians than hundreds of sheep, tended by an Israeli shepherd, of course. … All the government ministries are aware of the significant advantages of such farms, and they should be encouraged and enlarged in an orderly fashion, as is being done here in Binyamin.”