Kibbutz Bar’am sits directly beside Israel’s border with Lebanon. Before the war it cultivated 370 acres of orchards, growing apples, nectarines, plums and kiwis, producing approximately 6,000 tonnes of fruit and generating an estimated £15 million in sales annually. By the end of the war, two thirds of those orchards had been destroyed.
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Trailblazer Paul Stahl tends to apple trees. Photo by UJIA[Missing Credit]
Paul Stahl is Kibbutz Bar’am’s orchard manager. He witnessed generations of work destroyed overnight. For three years, since October 7, 2023, Paul has been rebuilding in the aftermath of agricultural terrorism that turned generations of his community’s work to ash. UJIA has stood with Paul from the start, helping blaze this trail of recovery.
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Top right: with Danielle Abraham, executive director of ReGrow. Photo by UJIA[Missing Credit]
Paul didn’t wait for the smoke to clear before deciding what to do next.
“I’ve passed the mourning phase. Now I rebuild.”