A little over a month ago, I posted how Al Monitor – and to some extent AP – were blaming Israel for killing bees in Gaza and thus decreasing Gaza’s honey production.
I called BS, and subsequently pointed to a Mondoweiss report about Gazans beekeepers that made no mention of Israeli pesticides or attacks being responsible for any declining bee populations. And trust me, if any site would jump to blame Israel, it is Mondoscheisse.
Now China’s Xinhua News have a report on the decline in bees and honey production. And Israel is not blamed at all, the culprits rather being climate change and global warming.
Climate change has significantly hit honey production in the Gaza Strip, worsening the predicament faced by Gaza’s honey producers, local beekeepers complained.
Beekeepers often begin harvesting honey in mid-April in Gaza, when spring allows swarms of bees to move between flowers and trees to pollinate them and collect nectar. Another harvest session takes place in November.
However, the situation began to change some 15 years ago, mainly as a result of climate change and global warming in the coastal enclave.
“Every day, we find hundreds of dead bees,” said 58-year-old beekeeper Issam Jarada, with over 35 years of experience in the honey industry.
Most of the beehives are found in the eastern parts of the Gaza Strip, close to its border with Israel, owing to less human activity in the area, which is not densely populated, and the area’s proximity to agricultural lands on both sides of the border.
A beekeeper used to own approximately 500 beehives, each of which produced 12 to 15 kilogrammes of honey, but now only around 150 hives remained and each hive only produces five to seven kilogrammes of honey.
Of course, the haters throw out the false allegations anyway, hoping they will stick. Which they unfortunately usually do.
