By ISM-NorCal
Al’Ard (The Land), is a Palestinian company started to support impoverished and small Palestinian farmers who were struggling to sell their olive oil at a fair price by providing them with state-of-the art facilities and helping them into the global market.
Today, Al-Ard is the largest Palestinian exporter of olive oil, working with family farmers and agricultural cooperatives to support the Palestinian agricultural economy and confront institutional Israeli occupation sabotage aimed at separating farmers from their land.
ISM NorCal offers Palestinian olive oil to our community in Northern California and across the United States, both to support Palestinian farmers and to raise funds to support the work of the International Solidarity Movement inside occupied Palestine. We are proud to feature the organic, fair trade Al’Ard oil in our online shop.
Palbox, a subscription box for Palestinian products whose proceeds benefit the work of the ISM, also features a bottle of Al’Ard organic Palestinian olive oil in every box under our own ISM brand, Hurriya Olive Oil.
For this issue of Live from Palestine, ISM NorCal interviewed Ziad Anabtawi, the CEO of Al’Ard Group in occupied Palestine about the situation of Palestinian farmers and how olive oil remains so crucial to Palestinian identity, culture and economy.
To purchase delicious Palestinian olive oil, please visit our website at https://shop.ism-norcal.org/, and please visit https://palbox.org to start your subscription to Palbox or purchase a lovely holiday gift for those you care about.
Question: Could you tell me more about Al’Ard?
Ziad Anabtawi: Al’Ard is a social investment for our family group of companies. We exist to support the Palestinian farmers, when they called upon the private sector to support them by providing a door for their products to reach the world. We do not want to compete with small family farmers but to provide support, marketing and global reach for their world-class products. Today, we have a sizable basket of products that has grown over a decade and a half of operations. We offer high-quality products in terms of packaging, taste and quality.
We have created a new coalition, the Palestinian Fertile Land Coalition, to work directly with farmers and agricultural cooperatives, an important addition to our activities. We are very excited to put more efforts into reaching more markets in the international arena.
Question: How is olive oil important to the Palestinian economy?
ZA: When it comes to how important olive oil and olives are to the Palestinian economy, we estimate that over 100,000 Palestinian families are benefiting from the olive oil business and handling. Olive oil in Palestine is not industrialized or commercialized; instead of the massive plantations with millions of trees, thousands of dunums of olive crops mechanically picked, as you see in Italy and Spain, what we have are small family farms and plots of land that are planted with ancient olive trees maintained through traditional methods over hundreds of years.
Families look after their trees and pick olives when the harvest comes. They take what they need for personal use and sell the rest, but essentially we are talking about home, artisan production in Palestine. Certainly, there are wealthy families with more trees, but there is no industrial scale farming. Instead, each family is directly involved with harvesting their produce.
We do not irrigate our trees in Palestine; our olive trees are rain-fed, planted in mountains and managed sustainably. The trees are exposed to the sunshine and trees take what they need from the rain. The oil that comes from these olives is therefore rich, rather than becoming light with excess water. This is also an environmentally sustainable, indigenous form of production. In essence, Palestinian olive oil is almost like a concentrate of olive oil, with a delicious and rich flavor.
Question: Why should supporters of Palestine buy Palestinian olive oil?
ZA: In the first place, olive oil and the olive harvest is very central to the Palestinian economy and sustaining Palestinian farmers. Supporting Palestinian olive farmers also helps Palestinian farmers to maintain their ties to their land. This tightens the relationship between the Palestinian people and their land. This is very helpful. When you see the harvest these days, it is like a festival; all families take a holiday from their jobs, go to the fields together, work on the picking together and feel the excitement and joy. This makes the relationship of the people and the land quite warm.
We have also recently witnessed many young Palestinians going to work as laborers in occupied Palestine ’48. These jobs offer money, but it can come at the expense of farming their land. At the same time, their land is being targeted by the settlements, and everybody knows what kind of harm the settlements are doing to the land, the Palestinian people and the hope of peace. These settlements are a very illegal activity carried out by the Israeli government, widely condemned by the international community.
When you buy olive oil and other Palestinian products like freekeh, and za’atar, you help Palestinian farmers remain on their land and opt to work in agriculture, protecting their land from settlement expansion.
Question: What conditions do you face that hinder you from producing olive oil under occupation?
ZA: As you know, under the Oslo agreements, Palestinian land was divided into three areas: Area A, which is the crowded areas, like the big cities; Area B, largely the outskirts of these big cities; and the remainder of the land, the majority of the land, especially the rural and agricultural areas, are classified as Area C, under complete Israeli control. This was supposed to be a temporary arrangement, but it has become seemingly permanent. We cannot build or do any construction in Area C, we cannot practice any kind of economic and social development.
This also enables the Israeli army and the settlers to have complete freedom to do what they like. So we see the settlers threatening Palestinian olive farmers. No harvesting happens at night, only during the day, and there is a constant atmosphere of fear and intimidation created by the settlers and sometimes by the Israeli army as well. The army protects the settlers, even when they are attacking the Palestinian farmers. Olive groves are burned or cut during the night, and farmers wake up to the damage. They set up closed military zones and cut trees to build settlements, killing the trees.
Of course, there is also the wall built throughout the West Bank, and farmers have trees behind the wall. They face the impossible task of seeking permission from the army to visit, care for and harvest their own olive trees. Needless to mention, the checkpoints all over the area, questioning and hindering Palestinian farmers from reaching their land.
Question: Is there anything else you would like to say to an audience of supporters of Palestine in the US about Palestinian olive oil?
ZA: I’d like to say one more thing about Palestinian agriculture and products. Everything in Palestine has a unique taste and quality. If you taste the olive oil, there is a unique texture and richness, even in comparison to the olive oil in Jordan and in occupied Palestine ’48. The same is true of za’atar, tomatoes, cucumbers — we use ancient crops with their own taste and flavor, with tremendous richness. You can feel this tasting freekeh, maftoul, or any Palestinian products. Most Palestinian products are also traditionally managed, grown by hand, and handled organically.