Customers and staff at a Shufersal supermarket in Haifa were bewildered on Tuesday by the empty shelves where government price-controlled milk cartons are usually arranged.

“A tiny pallet of cartons arrived this morning,” said the lady behind the cheese counter, motioning with her arms that it was less than a meter wide. “People were allowed to buy two cartons at a time.”

Of the few people who passed by the empty shelves, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union said he had no idea why there was no milk and had not heard about the Finance Ministry’s controversial dairy reform. A woman said she had heard of the reform, but did not know what it was about.

At the checkout counter, an elegantly dressed customer said she had “no idea” why the milk shelves were barren. “Someone told me it has something to do with the dairy farmers,” she added.

“Yes, there have been lots of complaints,” the checkout man confirmed. “But nobody knows why there’s no milk. Can you explain?”

“The dairy farmers are on strike over a reform that Bezalel Smotrich wants to pass,” a reporter from The Times of Israel responded, referring to the finance minister.

“I hate Smotrich,” chimed in another person at checkout. “He doesn’t think about ordinary folk.”

Similar scenes played out across the country on Tuesday after the Dairy Board — which regulates the industry and brings together representatives of the government, the farmers, and the dairy producers — decided to follow through on its threat to stop supplying raw milk.

A Shufersal spokesman said the shelves were empty across all its retail........

© The Times of Israel