Itzik Cohen, Chairman of the farm economy branch of the agricultural settlement movement, said today that the decision of the High Court of Justice instructing the Chief Rabbinate to maintain the heter mechirah was a praiseworthy one. He called it a "victory of sanity" that he claimed avoided a situation that would have led to serious damage to the produce market and consumers in Israel.
The heter mechirah is a rabbinically sanctioned rental of land in Israel to non-Jews so that they can work the land during the Shemitah, which falls this year. During Shemitah the land of Israel is meant to lie uncultivated for a year; however, the planting and harvesting restrictions apply only to Jews.
"Without the heter mechirah," Cohen said, "there would have been no alternative but extensive importing of agricultural produce from the Palestinian Authority and from overseas, while large tracts of agricultural lands in Israel would lie fallow. Such a situation would have been unbearable."