My younger brother has worked in agriculture in Kibbutz Matzuva, northern Israel, following his military service. I had a chance to visit him for two and a half days, in which I tried to document the life in the Kibbutz: from the people who live there, through its different locations, to the people who come there to work.
Matzuva in an interesting study case, because it encapsulate the current state of the collectives as a whole: in the turn of the millennium it went through privatization, and in 2003 its textile factory went bankrupt - thus ending the Kibbutz as it was originally operated since it was established in 1940. Today, its focus is still on agriculture – primarily bananas and avocados – but in a very different way, as the majority of its residents work outside and commute to the near cities. Therefore, on the plantations you can find mainly Thais, who come to Israel for periods of five years, hoping to earn more than they could back home. Alongside them, you have the Israeli young adults, who come to work in agriculture for periods of about eight months. The supervisors are mainly Bedouin, Druze and Arabs from the surrounding villages.
