Israel and Palestine: food security, destruction and solidarity
Food without farming
In October 2024 and January 2025, Israel hosted “food security” events, at a college two miles away from Gaza. The Food Sec&Tech Israel conferences had outwardly civilian branding but in October 2023, the event was hosted by a military trade fair organisation, that time in Tel Aviv.
The Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) then Chief Scientific Advisor, Robin May, attended the Tel Aviv event, funded by the FSA and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
With these events, Israel appears to have been positioning itself at the frontier of fake foods. A significant number of exhibitors at the October 2023 event were involved in the production of alternative proteins and cultivated meat—meat grown in tanks from animal cells. Such products may or may not involve genetic modification. In January 2024, Israel became the first country to approve non-GM cultivated beef.
One of the exhibitors at the Food Sec&Tech Israel 2023 conference
At the October 2024 event, one discussion was on Food Security = National Security, a phrase often repeated by the British government. Eight months prior to this, in February 2024, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warned of imminent famine in Gaza.
The January 2025 conference was promoted as The Global Food Security & Nutritional Resilience Conference. The event’s sole Platinum sponsor was the Ehrlich Group, “one of the most prominent Intellectual Property Groups both in Israel and internationally,” according to its website. Researchers from the Volcani Institute presented work on genetically modified cultivated meat.
Food Sovereignty has also featured in the events. The 2024 agenda puts this in the context of “nutritional justice, class and inequality, vulnerable populations”.
Seed multiplication unit destroyed
In July 2025, the Israeli military destroyed a seed multiplication unit of the Palestinian Local Seed Bank. According to details shared by the seed bank:
“Using bulldozers and heavy machinery, the Israeli army destroyed the storage warehouses and infrastructure of the unit, where essential equipment, seed materials, and tools for indigenous seed reproduction were kept. The destruction was carried out without warning, under military protection, and constitutes a direct blow to Palestinian efforts to preserve local biodiversity and ensure Food Sovereignty.”
The destroyed seed multiplication unit
The Local Seed Bank protects local seeds, which they say need less water, fertilisers and pesticides, can survive drought and salty soil, and give good quality crops. They told GM Freeze: “Each year, seeds are multiplied and shared, including with female farmers, to support small farms and reduce dependence on GM seeds or hybrid seeds.”
Established in 2010, the Seed Bank now preserves 79 local plant varieties, including traditional Palestinian vegetables, herbs, medicinal plants, field crops and wild native shrubs. It says: “These seeds are important for Food Sovereignty and help farmers adapt to climate change”.
The Palestinian Local Seed Bank collects, preserves and protects indigenous seeds, including cauliflower.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Seed Bank ran a campaign called Say No to GMOs and promoted laws to limit them. In Palestine, some GM seeds come from Israel but it is not legal to grow them locally.
The Landworkers’ Alliance has established a Palestinian Solidarity Twinning Project, whereby groups in the UK twin with groups or communities in Palestine. The Palestinian Local Seed Bank is twinned with Exeter Seed Bank, which is raising money to help rebuild the destroyed unit—see www.tinyurl.com/5dfbheut
Farms under fire
Fresh and Green Vegetables in Devon is twinned with the village of Al-Mughayyir in the West Bank. Though there are extreme differences in the experience of the two farming communities, there is one common factor: in neither place is farming a lucrative endeavour, and both Ruth in Devon and Ghassan in Al-Mughayyir must supplement their income.[1]
Ghassan told Ruth:
“For me, farming is the most important and meaningful [work]—it’s my true passion. We inherited it from our ancestors, and we see the land as something living, like a human being. I can’t let a day go by without working, touching the soil and plants, guiding the workers and association members, and assigning the daily tasks. I feel truly happy when I’m among the trees, the crops, and the fruits.”
Shortly after this message was written, the Israeli military and settlers uprooted approximately 10,000 olive trees belonging to the village of Al-Mughayyir. Ghassan said:
“For the past three days, they have been uprooting trees that are hundreds of years old. My father, who is 70 years old, has been standing at the window of our house, watching the toil of our ancestors and the hard work of many generations being destroyed under the bulldozers.”
As of mid November 2025, 4,300 hectares of Al-Mughayyir’s land had also been taken, and 20,000 more trees confiscated––that is, located in an area not possible for the villagers to access or tend to without facing extreme violence from Israeli soldiers and settlers. After a year, the land could be taken over under Israeli law on the pretext that it has no owners. As of November 2025, Al-Mughayyir is left with just the built-up area of the village—95 hectares.
Bulldozers operated by Israeli settlers and soldiers uproot olive trees, Al-Mughayyir, 23rd August 2025.
According to Ghassan, Israel exploits water and land resources in an extreme and reckless way, overusing water, especially groundwater, and relying heavily on pesticides, hormones and genetic modification. “All of this harms future generations, weakens the soil, and renders the land barren,” he says.
The widespread destruction of ancient olive groves and the livelihoods they support won’t only have an impact on nutrition and food security in the immediate future, but for generations and generations to come.
Fresh and Green Vegetables are running a fundraiser to support Al-Mughayyir. See www.tinyurl.com/yjcvyjsa
Ghassan said:
“The distances between us are vast, but what unites us is even greater: humanity, truth, justice, and the support of the oppressed wherever they may be in this world. My family, the association, our friends, and all of our people truly value this, and we will never forget those who stand with us.”
Bring and Share Tea and Farmwalk boosts fundraising for Al-Mughayyir in Devon,
12th October 2025.
[1] Ghassan also works for the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, which published a report on World Statistics Day 20/10/2025. It states: “These numbers are records written with the tears of mothers and the patience of unknown heroes who work tirelessly, day and night, to affirm truth through data to prove that identity endures and that the land cannot be erased. For us, statistics are not merely a profession, but a pledge and a voice of truth.”
A vine in Al-Mughayyir
