During these days when the raucous and violent power of the Left is being heard throughout the city streets, a hopeful fact suddenly rises up. On the eve of Tu BeShevat, the Central Bureau of Statistics released its annual report regarding Israeli agriculture.
A very joyful fact stars on the very first page reporting the percentage of new planting which took place during the Shmittah year. Very possibly, there were no new plantings whatsoever by Jews.
In contrast, we present the figures of planting in previous years: "In 5780, 46,241 dunam of new fruit trees were planted, In the following year, 61,861 dunam were enriched with fruit trees."
Now pay attention: In 5782, the year of shmittah, only 1947 dunam of orchards were planted with new fruit trees, less than one percent from the previous years, while the true facts are probably even much smaller, as follows:
The surprising data is coupled with a note that the planting that did take place refers to the secular calendar year. Regarding the Jewish calendar, this includes the months after shmittah, so that the relevant facts are considerably lower.
To be added is the fact that the figure includes planting of Arabs, mainly of olive trees, so that if we exclude their planting, one can very reasonably sum up with satisfaction that there was no Jewish planting of new trees during the shmittah year!
