Our latest newsletter is available now…updates from the West Bank where farming communities are experiencing increasing violence, intimidation and village closures. Also news on our caramelised almonds now back in stock, lots of events around the country, and a luscious chicken recipe! Read and share!
In the West Bank, Israel has just announced the biggest land grab in 30 years. Almost 1000 acres are to be taken from 3 villages near Bethlehem. Settlements watchdog Peace Now has said “As far as we know, this declaration is unprecedented in its scope since the 1980s and can dramatically change the reality in the Gush Etzion and the Bethlehem areas.” See Al Arabiya. Friends of Wadi Fuqeen have drafted this sample letter, which you can send to your MP and MEPs
Dear…
Israel has just announced the biggest land grab in 30 years. Around 988 acres will be taken from three villages on the West Bank. The announcement has left the villagers reeling from the shock.
Please read the news stories at the links below. The Guardian, Reuters and the Maan news agency have all reported this and I will add some links further down this page. Can the EU make any representations to the Israelis about this?
This is designed to ensure the Palestinians leave. I find this ethnic cleansing and land theft utterly shocking. It cannot be allowed to continue.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/08/31/Israel-plans-to-expropriate-400-hectares-of-west-bank-Army-.html
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/31/gaza-war-costs-israel-budget-cuts
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=724424
http://www.haaretz.com/mobile/.premium-1.613319

Kind regards
Updates from the ground on the actual situation in the WestBank
The kidnapping of 3 settlers, weather it was planned action by the Israelis, or if it was organized by Palestinian resistance, it has any way been used by the Israelis to attack the Palestinian Unity that has been reached lately between Hamas and Fatah after the failure of the Palestinian Israeli Talks recently.
The Israeli Government launched a massive campaign of assault against Hebron and the south areas, for 2 weeks searching for these claimed kidnapped settlers to find them dead near their own settlements in Gush Atsyon and then on the other hand the kidnapping of the young man Mohammad Abu khder from Jerusalem – Shufat and burning, murdering him by settlers has made a shock in the Palestinian street specially in Jerusalem, where the Israelis has been working for very long time in order to collapse the Palestinian Identity and to kill the roots of the resistance, after the murder of Mohammad Abu Khder, the Palestinian response has came very strong in Jerusalem and surrounding areas, and it has awakened the Palestinian street in the west bank in which was not expected by Israel Government, also the settlers across the WestBank has undertook actions of kidnapping of Palestinian young man and almost killed him, in Qusra village near Nablus area earlier in July.
However the situation on the ground in the West Bank in term of expected Intafada is still possible, especially after the statement of the PLO leadership in which Abbas has been under pressure by the Palestinian people to correct his language and to be in clear support of the resistance in Gaza rather than playing the role of the mediator and to consider the attack on Gaza as it is attack against the Palestinian Nation.
Currently the demonstrations in support of Gaza are taking place in many areas of the west bank, In Hebron, Beit Ommar, Qalandia, Nablus, Jerusalem, Abudeis and many other villages too, where the situation is developing toward all over uprising, but on the other hand the Israelis are taking actions to prevent by fire force any possible action of the Palestinians non violent resistant.
Beside the IOF actions of invasions of Palestinian villages also on daily basis there are attacks weather by settlers throwing stones on Palestinian cars in the main roads like (Zatara checkpoint – Nablus, Gush Atsyon – Hebron ), sometimes there will be demonstrations organized by settlers on the main roads calling for the slaughtering of the Palestinians ethnic and raping of the women, such demos takes place in the main roads too, and most times when such demos takes place they goes beyond that to attacked the villages like what happened in Brokeen village in Salfeet Area, when the settlers invaded the villages and were shooting at the houses and burning everything in the street.
The situation became more critical and it has reached the point of uprising against settlers. it is strongly believed in the Palestinian street currently that the situation would reach the worst level ever mainly by the settlers who are given a cover by the Israeli Government to take their Own action against the Palestinians, where 2 martyrs in Hawara near Nablus got shot by settlers in the main street after last Friday prayers.
Movement of people and transportation has not been prevented by IOF so far through the bypass roads of the settlements, but it is very risky as no alarm would be given pre settlers attacks on these roads, the tension is very alarming of assaults might take place at any moment.
The Palestinians also having to worry about the water supply as most of the Palestinian villages throughout the WestBank are getting the water provided by the Israeli Makarot company, and the main pipes coming through the settlements in which the settlers can have the control over these domestic water pipelines, as it has been noticed lately of water cut during the Ramadan Month In Nablus Area without any reason been clarified by the officials of Israeli Makarot.
In such situation the question will remain open, if there will a Palestinian arm struggle as a respond to the settlers attacks in which is an ethnic cleansing war.
Our newsletter is available to download at http://eepurl.com/Ubts9…lots to read on an exciting new product, harvest trip details, events and the Nakba Day campaign!
Sharen Green, Zaytoun distributor from Wimborne, Dorset tells us how she became a Zaytoun distributor:
Early in the new century an unsolicited email landed in my inbox from a cooperative in Israel which was trying to promote Arab women’s interests by selling olive oil. Sindyanna of Galilee was willing to ship small amounts of its fairly traded products and I was tempted.
My local fair trade shop said if I imported it, they would buy it. So I sent out an email titled “Would you buy a second hand car from this woman?” setting out the plan. Five people trusted me enough to send £50 each and I was in business. This was 2003, before Zaytoun was invented. I tried to get someone in Liverpool to act as my agent and I muddled around wondering how to get the stuff to Dorset. In the end I thought the only way to learn how to import goods from Israel was – to import goods from Israel. I ordered 100 bottles of oil and some soap and – amazingly – all went smoothly from the Israeli side.
My troubles began when the boat made landfall at Felixstowe. I can’t remember how many hoops I had to jump through to get the wretched boxes through customs but it seemed much longer than the passage from Haifa had taken and involved several sleepless nights. Come the day it was due to arrive at my house, I sneaked off from work when the driver phoned. He turned to be the worst jobsworth I have ever met.
There was a pallet in the lorry for me but he wasn’t allowed to help me unload it. I envisioned a heavy load which I wouldn’t be able to manage on my own. He said it would need a tail lift which in his case he did not have. It seemed he would have to return the next day with the proper kit, pushing up the cost by £60 or so. My head was throbbing and I was regretting the whole project. Half way down the drive he took pity on me, opened the van and passed me the pathetic few boxes and the crisis was over (but I still hate him).
Off I went to the shop in Wimborne to deliver the load and my contact said she would take a dozen bottles. Fantastic – this was the woman who had imported 1,300 jars of jam from Botswana by mistake, wanting only 130 jars. I’d done a funny feature for her in my capacity as a reporter on the local rag. Her sales took off and the shop is still doing a thriving trade in the jam years after she retired. But she was only going to take 12 bottles of my oil and a few measly bars of soap. I smiled bravely and left – what the hell was I going to do with the 88 left-over bottles?
Sheer panic turned me into an effective sales person and I managed to get rid of the oil – I even re-ordered several times. But my troubles were far from over. Trading standards took an interest and the fairtrade shop removed the soap from the shelves. My visit to trading standards revealed the problem – my goods were non-compliant with EU regs. The soap contained “water” when apparently it should have contained a substance called “aqua”. The bottle size of oil was 50 centilitres when it should have been 500 millilitres and there was no Best Before Date…..Convincing Hadas, my Israeli (Jewish) contact at Sindyanna, to comply with these seemingly unreasonable requests took some doing.
Meanwhile I visited Sindyanna shortly after our country had finished bombing Iraq back to the Middle Ages. I was very impressed with the project – Israeli Palestinian women were equal partners. The project was originally set up to help them educate themselves so they could support their children going through the grossly distorted Israeli school system which disadvantages non-Jewish children.
Hadas and her colleagues realised the women needed jobs. Freedom of movement was very tough at that point as the second intifada was still playing out. As well as her work in Israel, Hadas had smuggled consignments of soap from Nablus in the occupied territories over the mountains and she had bought an entire village’s olive harvest to smuggle out of the West Bank one year.
At some point I heard about Heather Gardner as she then was. She and her colleagues were planning to import Palestinian olive oil as a proper business. Better yet, she was going to bring stuff from the beleaguered West Bank as well as selling Sindyanna goods from Israel proper. We met up in her parents’ house and I shared my adventures with her. I was absolutely delighted when Zaytoun was born – I was off the hook!
Ever since 2004 I have been an enthusiastic Zaytoun distributor. They do the dirty work with the Israeli authorities, customs, trading standards etc and all I do is buy from them and sell to appreciative customers.
Some of my favourite clients include a school for children with learning difficulties, a mental health project in Bournemouth and Salisbury Cathedral. The head verger there buys a five litre tin for the Maundy Thursday service when clergy from all over the diocese come to town and collect oil for use in the coming year. Many Anglican and Catholic cathedrals do the same but Salisbury was the first.
And my (modest) profits support the education of women in the West Bank. They partly fund a scholarship for an engineering student at Birzeit University and help support a blind girl about to embark on higher education.
Thank you, Zaytoun! Your efforts have made it possible for campaigners to raise consciousness in Britain as well as helping hard-pressed Palestinian farmers get their delicious goods to market.
