Anger over paramilitary industries on kibbutz

WITH its haystacks, rusting ploughs and scent of livestock, Kibbutz Beit Alfa seems an unlikely place to affect the future of far-away Zimbabwe.

For much of the kibbutz’s 81-year history, members prided themselves on their idealism and defined themselves as a vanguard of Zionist socialism. But now, Beit Alfa is an ally of despotism in the eyes of some liberal Israelis and Zimbabwe’s opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The state-of-the-art crowd control water tankers supplied by the kibbutz this month promise to boost President Robert Mugabe’s efforts to suppress the opposition, the MDC says.

Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth over its conduct of the March election, in which Mr Mugabe declared victory over the MDC in a contest that international observers found to be neither free nor fair.