” of course much has changed here in recent years. The houses are private and the principle of equal pay are abolished. But it would be hard to live like this if you have not estimated the collective thought. Therefore, I believe that most people on the kibbutz who vote will choose left-wing parties.
It says Chris Talsmith, a wiry weather-beaten man in his fifties who is taking a short break from their förmanssysslor out on the vast expanse of fruit and grönsaksodlingarna belonging to the kibbutz Gadot.
We are in the far north of Galilee in Israel, near the Golan heights, the mountainous region that Israel captured from Syria after the six day war in 1967, and who now again entered into världspolitikens focus. This then president of the united states Donald Trump decided that the united states as the first country in the world recognises Israel’s right to the Golan.
the Kibbutz Gadot with its low beigerappade buildings nestled in the intensive vårgrönska. It’s Sunday, work the first day, but the atmosphere is peaceful. There are about 550 people. The elderly residents from slipping forward in the golf carts on the pedestrian streets, the young people tread mountain bikes.
Tel Aviv’s mondänitet and The congestion feels very very far away and it also makes the ongoing election campaign in Israel, which is entering its final stage. In this neighborhood, however, we see not a single election poster.
Honestly, I think people are tired of politics. There have been so many korruptionsaffärer and so much scandal lately, reflects Chris Talsmith.
He was born in the north of England but has lived in the kibbutz for over 30 years. His son Daniel is born here, is working with his dad out in the avokadoodlingarna and have clear of how he will vote:
” I belong to the left wing. And I think that social issues are more important than the security issues, which is the right’s main card.
Yaffit Sagi. Photo: Mehdi Chebil
Kibbutzerna, kollektivjordbruken, was for many years a symbol of the young, forward-looking state of Israel. Kibbutzrörelsen is also very much associated with the israeli left, particularly the Labor party, which for decades was the dominant political force in Israel.
the Legendary israeli politicians like David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan and Golda Meir all had their roots in the kibbutz and the labor movement. Hundreds of thousands of young people from all over the world – among them many swedes – went out as volunteers, the volunteers, and participated in the israeli kibbutzernas work.
But today the winds of change are blowing, both in kibbutzerna and in Israel’s internal affairs. The classic kibbutzmodellen, where the property was common and all earned as much have been abandoned. Now powered most of the kibbutzer like any business, some are even publicly traded. The voluntary activities have come to a standstill. Many kibbutzer, including Gadot, has stopped hosting the volunteering basis.
And the Labor party, which at one time was the only force to be reckoned with in israeli politics, has been relegated to the margins. The latest opinion poll, from the national tv channel Rashet 13, shows a continued decline for the Labour party. According to the poll, they may be just eleven of the 120 seats in the parliament, the knesset.
The conservative Likud is more than twice as large according to the poll, with 28 mandates, and the new upstart right-wing, valalliansen Kahol Lavan, the ”white-Blue”, may 29 mandate.
Chris Talsmith think that Blue and white can get some votes out of kibbutzfolket.
” But there are those who vote for parties to the left of the Labor party also, as Meretz (vänsterliberalt party, which, however, is dangerously close to treprocentsspärren in the measurements).
There are about 250 kibbutzer in Israel with a total of over 100,000 members. Of course, it is difficult to draw any general conclusions about kibbutzmedlemmarnas political affiliation after having visited a single plant.
But even if most of them would tilt to the left, Gadot seems to do, it is a fact that kibbutzerna at large – even Gadot – has moved pretty far from the original collectivist samhällsformen.
Eitan Sat. Photo: Mehdi Chebil
we will discover when we visit kibbutzens small museum, guided by one of the Gadots real veterans, the 84-year-old former ladugårdsarbetaren Eitan Sat.
once upon A time housed the museum building, the common duschinrättningen.
– We had not showers, not running water at all in our small house, ” says Eitan Sat and holds out the magnications of the black-and-white images that shows the business as it looked in the 1960s and 1970s.
There is a lot of work – combines that plow over the wheat fields, chip baskets filled with oranges – but also joint leisure: horseplay and performances in the medborgarhuset, a group of young people that flock in front of the only (black and white) tv set.
the Children is a chapter for itself.
” the Children belong to us. The kibbutz was their family, ” said Eitan Sat.
It meant that the children grew up in a particular orphanage. The parents got to just hang out with his kids a few hours each day. Something of a contemporary american – and israel, too – sounds a bit too much of samhällsutopi and Alva Myrdal stålblanka social engineering.
But Yaffit Sagy invests in kibbutzens kitchen and in charge of visiting teaching, says that she only has good memories from her own childhood in the Swedish children’s welfare foundation:
” this system was abolished in the Gadot in the year 1984, and then protested the children. We were like siblings, it became a community which is difficult to imagine.
When I issues Yaffit Sagy if she would like her own children are growing up in an orphanage, she draws a little on the answer:
– Each time has its customs. Barnhusen was probably necessary then, for forty–fifty years ago. Israel was the military siege and the economy was scant. The parents had to work hard and may not really time with their children. Today it’s different.
Photo: Mehdi Chebil
the Inhabitants of the Gadot has on the skin got to feel Israel’s military tensions with neighbouring countries. Before 1967, when the Golan was captured from Syria was the syrian army’s artillery pieces just a kilometre away.
Eitan Sat takes us on a tour and shows the scars after the war. A large entrance hole in the medborgarhusets facade from a rough gun (”we decided to keep it when we repair the building, as a reminder,” said Eitan Sat. The shelters that are deployed with uncanny regularity in the buildings.
In april 1967, in the run-up to the six day war, shot, Gadot pieces of syrian artillery.
Only two of the houses stood partially remain. We were in the bunkers, but it was still pure miracle that none of us died or were injured, ” said Eitan Sat.
He has lived most of his life in Gadot. Here, he and his wife – who passed away a month ago, raised five children. Two of them live on the kibbutz.
” I was opposed to the privatisation, when we voted on the matter ten years ago. But it is not so that I go and grämer me and think that everything was better in the old days. I realize that times change. Now have a dishwasher a certain salary and maskinskötaren another. It is well the passage of time, ” says Eitan Sat.