"Hunting City" .. The occupation is fighting with various tricks

Mona Al-Amri-Acre

In the 1990s, the seventeen Mustafa Zikur was throwing his hat in the Acre sea to catch fish. "In the two months we were fishing for about 20,000 sardines, and in comparison with the 1970s, those quantities are small, Half-box ".

In ancient Acre and in a neighborhood close to the sea, Mustafa, who has studied and worked in the fishing profession since the age of 10, lived six years ago. He decided to make a new tourist boat and keep the fishing boat so that the profession of parents and grandparents would not be lost in the "fishing town".

"Most of the boats in the port of Acre today are yachts for the rich of Israel, while the rest are tourist boats for tours of the sea. Only three fishing boats remain in the fishing town," says Mustafa, the last of Acre's fishermen.

"The sea is useless"
Only three fishermen today have boats licensed to fish in the Sea of ​​Acre, where half of their families had taken up fishing until the early 1970s.

In the 1950s and 1980s, the profession gradually began to deteriorate, but it was better than it was today, in order to fight the Israeli authorities for decades, in different ways.

The competent authorities have reduced the different fishing methods under the pretext of protecting marine life. One of these methods is fishing by diving, which Arab fishermen are not permitted to practice without granting them a license to practice, although they have practiced it for many years. The maritime violation of all kinds can be worth 860 dollars.

From the suffering of fishermen, Mustafa says the boats need periodic maintenance. The cost of diesel per fishing trip is around $ 320. Fishermen need workers to help them, while fish at sea are available to cover costs.

The past five years have witnessed a sharp decline in the number of fishing boats in Israel, which is due to the negligence of the Ministry of Agriculture, the failure to support them, the provision of guidance or the updating of laws relating to the profession.

Withdrawal of licenses
He added that the Israeli Ministry of Occupation is withdrawing the licenses and failing to renew them. They send fishermen a message by mail informing them of their decision to strip them of fishing licenses for various reasons, including delay in paying license fees.

Acre fishermen are also prevented from raising fish within the cages of the sea, which is one of the fishing methods used by the authorities for Israeli fishing companies to use them to raise the fish "dinosaur" in the area of ​​Atlit.

Abu Al-Halawani, a veteran fisherman who has transformed his boat from fishing to tourism, says "the calamities of people are about benefits." He explained that the Sham storm hit the coast years ago and resulted in the cracking of 5 huge cages of dinosaurs in Atelit. And half-ton, and continues his laugh, "We and the people of Beirut caused us to see the storm Sham."

The people of the sea collect the reasons for the reluctance or displacement of fishermen, including the pollution caused by factory refineries located in the Gulf of Acre - Haifa, with the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture, in addition to the remnants of the electricity company from coal, which in turn contributes to the closure of fish houses.