Ali's First Blog.

From Social Justice Report.

Since the first Diaspora, all the way through King Saladin’s victory over the Crusaders in the tenth century, and until the British Mandate in 1948, Arabs in the Palestine area had been cultivating and harvesting agricultural products including olives, peacefully.

Then, in 1948, Israeli settlements were being established right and left, pushing the Palestinian farmers farther out and away from their farms. To this day, Israeli settlement roads are dividing villages. According to one man we interviewed about his trip to Palestine and Israel, Otto René Peréz-Arana, Palestinians risk their lives if they even step within 100 yards of these settlement roads. And, according to Israeli law, it is illegal for a Palestinian to use, or even step on the Israeli settlement roads, even if the roads sit in the middle of a farming village. After researching, talking to some people who’ve visited the region and grasping an understanding of the situation, it became clear that the Palestinians were oppressed and controlled against humanitarian norms through their agriculture. And, Olive trees alone, that account for 38.2% of the total fruit trees production income in Palestine. It is close to the biggest exported product in Palestine. Alone, it accounts for about 5% of Palestine’s entire Gross Domestic Product. The Olive tree does not solely generate olive oil, Palestinian farmers also produce high quality olive oil soap and olive wood and much more. An economically weaker Palestine makes it much easier for a stronger, more well-funded Israeli government to take even more land from the Palestinians.
It is a known fact that violence and aggression thrive in impoverishment. Without a stable economy, Palestinians will continue to express aggression towards the wealthier, more powerful Israeli government. And, without the cultivation of olives, they will have almost nothing else to rely on. Recently, the Israeli government has been working on their latest form of apartheid, the “wall.” The wall is project that will result in a cement wall border to separate Israel and the land Israel has granted Palestine. It is twice the size of the Berlin Wall, standing twenty-five feet high. With 90 miles already built, it cuts right through Jerusalem (“City of Peace”), and is supposed to be 400 miles once completed. Also, once built, it will divide al-Quds University, which is the primary Palestinian school of higher learning in Jerusalem. But, probably the most significant effect of the wall is the fact that it has already uprooted 10,320 olive trees. This, to the Palestinians, means that they will not be able to sell their olive products and be able to make ends meet. With 20% of Palestinian farmers relying on olive trees alone, the Israeli destruction of olive trees threatens to take what little the Palestinians have left and disintegrate the already weak economic structure. The small Palestinian economy is now reliant on the production of olive tree products, but simply supporting the farmers in Palestine will not alleviate the entire economic burden that sits on them. Sitting in San Francisco, that may be our only option.

SOOOOO

Carmen's THIRD blog!!!!

anyways

sooo you all heard of our WONDERFUL expedition to DOWNTOWN BERKELEY at the crack of Dawn on a SATURDAY morning (approx. 10am) we bottled over half a THOUSAND bottles of Palestinian Olive Oil with the ISM (International Solidarity Movement). The International Solidarity Movement works alongside the Palestinians by sending people from different countries to help and witness the happenings in Palestine. They fund this by selling Palestinian Olive Oil which they "help" harvest throughout the year. thisweek we expect Paul Larudee to bring us he olive oil from Berkeley so we can begin selling it!!!! Paul is the guy in th picture. He is half Iranian and he's HELLLLLAAAA cool!!! SOOOO get ready to buy some Olive oil!!!!!!!!

YAYAYYAYAYYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAY!!!!!

peace home-ster nuggets!

love

-C

Saturday, May 5

Like Gandhi or Jesus, I (and my group) make sacrifices for the betterment of others and the world. It was thus, in the name of good will, that I woke early on the once-sacred Saturday. My group and I embarked that day for Berkeley, where, in someone’s house, we would be bottling olive oil.

A few BART trains and a few blocks by foot and we (Carmen and I) arrived at the house, where Ali was putting a sign on advertising the bottling and selling. Inside we met the people in charge, read over the process of bottling, and helped ourselves to some gourmet, fair-trade, probably organic, coffee. The whole affair I felt was very Berkeley. The organization—which sells its olive oil under the name Hurriya, which in Arabic means “Freedom”—is run and operated by volunteers, politically-minded humanitarians such as you and I. It’s a small time operation (for now) that sells fair trade, organic Palestinian olive oil to support the livelihood of Palestinians and to fundraise for the International Solidarity Movement. The ISM sends members to Palestine to observe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and participate in nonviolent protestation against the Israeli occupation. Though the organization takes a partisan stance in its objective, the objective is one desired by both sides: peace.

We found out that the bottling process is more complicated than it appears. The process involves many steps, but with each of us specializing in one individual step, the whole combination moved along smoothly. I labeled bottles. Labeled them one after another. It’s a fairly tedious process, but fortunately by the 3rd hour it was an automatic, unconscious motion. It had an air of sweatshop labor without any of the harshness. The best part of the day was lunch. Palestinian food: falafels, dolmas, tabouli, pita, and lots of olive oil on everything. All that was missing was beer, but before we were able to fantasize it was back to work. Labeling, again, by now it was a little more tiresome.

By the end of the day we had filled, sealed, labeled, and boxed hundreds of bottles of olive oil. We sat through an ISM meeting afterward and then left feeling the lightness of charity as we set off to celebrate Cinco De Mayo.

Palestinian Olive Oil and Food =)

Carmen's 2nd Entry:

lol
sooooo

Yesterday after spending the ENTIRE day with my uncle, he informed me of an event happening this Saturday (tomorrow) May 5th. He told me that ISM (International Solidarity Movement) is holding a sort of meeting/get-together so that people can go and help package Palestinian Olive Oil. which is EXACTLY what we wanted to do!!!!!

so tomorrow we're all gonna have HELLA fun! and go package Olive oil bright and early at 10 am!

yay!
GO OLIVES FOR PEACE!!!

Carmen's entry...

At lunch we (Ali, Jared and I) left on the 38 on our way to 30 Van Ness. We were on our way to interview my Uncle, Tito. He is a health advocate for the City Of San Francisco and works with the Department of Public Health. However in his free time he has had the opportunity to travel to different countries and experience different perspectives.

In 2004, during Ramadan, he embarked on a trip to the Middle East to see first hand what was happening there. He chose to visit different Palestinian villages that were close to or were occupied by Israeli settlements. He stayed in Balata in Nabulus, Budros, and Jenin. He experienced the life of Olive farmers; he picked olives with them, and fled from Israeli soldiers along their side. He told us of how the construction of “The Settler’s Road” had affected the lives of farmers, because more often than not, the roads were built in a way so it was against the law for olive pickers to do what their ancestors had done for centuries: pick olives. In one picture he illustrated how difficult it would be for a Palestinian to travel anywhere, it was just easier for them to stay where they were, rather than leave and have to deal with that hassle. He also told us of how throwing rocks has just become a way of life, it no longer conscious act of resistance, rather it is engrained in the younger generations. They are constantly resisting. Instead of going to school, children wait along roads and wait until settlers or Israeli soldiers come so that they can throw rocks at them. It’s not just a civic duty that is forced upon them; they have taken it upon themselves to create it part of their day.

All in all we learned a lot and we are glad that we have a great source whose trip to Palestine was based and centralized around the olive trees like our project.