Made in Palestine Farmers in Occupied Territories struggle to sell
Exporting local products to global markets is one of the pillars of any country's economy, but farmers in the Palestinian territories deal with the unique problem of being part of an economy not formally recognized as a state.
The Palestinian Authority was established in 1994 under the Oslo accords, and tasked with governing areas in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip while negotiating with Israel on the status of Palestinian statehood.
A consensus has yet to be reached 17 years later, leaving Palestinian farmers with the challenge of selling their goods in a market largely dominated by Israeli settler products.
Israeli products compete directly with Palestinian ones -- they are produced by Israeli settlers living in territory under Palestinian Authority control. The international community views the Israeli settlements as an occupying force, infringing on both Palestinian business and land.
The UN enacted resolution 446 in 1979, stating that the policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
Those territories include the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, which should all be under Palestinian control, UN charters state. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated that stance in April of 2012, stating that all Israeli attempts to legalize preexisting settlements runs contrary to Israel's obligations under the Road Map and repeated Quartet calls for the parties to refrain from provocations.
In light of these circumstances, many international distributors may not realize that every purchase of a Palestinian or Israeli settlement product abroad has the potential to define where people stand in on this hot-button issue.
People are not sufficiently aware that Israeli settlement products are competing with Palestinian products abroad, Palestinian Minister of Economics Jawad Al-Naji said to RT. Also, when we tell the customer that there's a difference between settlement products and Israeli products, they understand that we're living under occupation and they can choose what products to buy or not.
Organizations such as Canaan Fair Trade and The Palestinian Fair Trade Association, both located in Jenin in the West Bank, have been increasing the distribution of Palestinian products abroad, allowing more and more buyers a greater range of choices between Palestinian and Israeli settlement goods.
The boycott movement also has raised a 'buy-cott' movement that asks distributors to carry Palestinian products, said Nasser Abufarha, director of Canaan Fair Trade. Especially in the US you find that as much as specialty shops and co-ops are excited to find Palestinian specialty goods in the marketplace, the supermarkets executives, they are excited about it, but they are calculating, 'okay, what backlash am I going to get from Zionist bloggers in the market place?'
These products, however, sell for almost double their value because of the cost of competing in a market already dominated by Israeli competition.
Everyone here grows olives and the so the local market is very small and the competition big. The money we get for our olives is also little says Mohammed Al Fatah, a Palestinian farmer.
Problems almost also arise when Palestinians try to name their product, since it's difficult to distinguish their products from those made in the Israeli settlements.
Our products can't say 'made in Palestine' because we're under occupation and not yet a state. They can say 'made in the West Bank' or 'made in Gaza' or 'Palestinian product, says Hanan Taha-Rayyan, CEO of Paltrade, based in Ramallah.
Some companies, like the Palestinian pharmaceuticals company Pharmacare in the West Bank, can't sell in their own backyard.
Our products are not allowed to be registered and not allowed to be distributed to Israelis, Pharmacare marketing manager Ziad Abualrob said, adding that any product with an Arabic label or Palestinian label will be rejected by the securities.
Restrictions on the Palestinian market are creating economic difficulties for the farmers, who hope that supporters around the world will pay a few extra dollars for a bottle of olive oil from Palestinian farmers.
Olive Picking Campaign in Palestine (2009)
October 2009. The Alternative Tourism Group (ATG) and the Joint Advocacy Initiative (JAI) organized the Olive Picking Campaign in Palestine.
The supreme symbol of Palestine, the olive tree symbolizes the deep connection of Palestinians to their land. Since the beginning of the second Intifada in 2000, the olive harvest has been overshadowed by Israel's army of repression. The objective of the Olive Picking Campaign is to mobilize international volunteers to assist farmers in picking olives in fields. The closures, blockage of streets and confiscation of agricultural lands, as well as repeated attacks against Palestinian farmers by Israeli settlers, make the work in fields so hard. Besides picking olives, the program features introductory presentations about the current situation in Palestine and the effect of the Apartheid Wall. In the program there are included political tours in the Old City of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron, in addition to cultural events and social gatherings. One can learn about the importance of olive tree in all aspects of Palestinian life; the production of olives, oil, and the handicrafts produced from the olivewood. Palestinians are suffering from the construction of the Apartheid Wall at the expense of their land. Many cities are divided and many farmers are separated from their olive trees. Farmers can not reach freely their olive fields situated in close proximity of Israeli settlements, bypass roads and the Apartheid Wall path. In these areas, an international presence is often needed in order to help Palestinian farmers access their olive groves which are in danger of being confiscated.
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Controversial barrier causing problems during West Bank olive harvest
SHOTLIST :
Anin, West Bank - 2 November 2006
1. Pan of olive orchard
2. Wide of barrier
3. Palestinian farmer and Israeli soldier passing through gate at barrier
4. Farmers on tractor passing through gate
5. Palestinians walking through gate; pan to farmers standing under olive tree
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): Salam Hamdan, resident of Anin:
I arrive (at the gate) with fear of them harassing me, pushing me around or sending me back home. Sometimes when all the people have already passed, what can a woman do alone? They open the gate early when it is still dark. Last year the case was different, they used to open it until 0800 o'clock, not at 05:30 when the children are still sleeping and have to go to school and there is no one to dress them for school. It is a difficult situation in the morning.
7. Salam Hamdan walking away
8. Farmers on tractor leaving gate
9. Soldier closing gate; sign on gate reading: Mortal Danger- Military Zone
10. Various of farmers getting off tractor
11. Farmers preparing for olive harvest
12. Wide of farmers working in olive orchard
13. Farmer harvesting olives with wooden stick
14. Women picking olives
15. Set up of deputy mayor of Anin, Faraj Hamdan
16. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): Faraj Hamdan, deputy mayor of Anin:
There is a large number of families that some of their members still have not obtained entry permits. This constitutes a problem for the farmers. You can find a man without his wife or a woman without her husband, and on a distant piece of land. How can we leave a woman alone especially when we, the Arabs and Palestinians, are cautious not to neglect land and honour.
17. Woman pouring tea for her husband
18. Woman picking olives
19. Farmers lighting fire at olive orchard
20. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): Wafa Yaseen, resident of Anin :
If he has been denied a permit for security reasons, then he should be sent to jail. But I want to understand why, unlike others, they refuse to give him a permit. They gave him a permit only once since the barrier was built. We were happy since it was his first time for four years to visit the land for the purpose of picking olives. All the people are harvesting their lands except for us, we spend every day at the gate crying. Abu Sameh (nickname for the mayor Faraj Hamdan) is a witness to that I cry daily at the gate begging the soldier (to let my husband pass through the gate).
21. Soldier at gate
Broqin, West Bank - 20 October 2006
22. Soldiers talking to Palestinian farmers
23. Wide of farmers at olive orchard
24. Farmers at orchard
25. Farmer on ladder
26. Man and child standing on ladder
Bethlehem, West Bank - 28 October 2006
27. Wide of olive tree, dome of Church of Nativity in background
28. Tilt up from olive oil cans to olives at stand
29. Pan to olive harvest festival
30. Woman selling olive products, visitors at festival
31. Close up of soap made out of olive oil
32. People selling olives at festival
Anin, West Bank - 2 November 2006
33. Close up of olives
34. Pile of olives on ground
35. Children picking olives
36. Girl running through orchard, pan to men picking olives
37. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): Faraj Hamdan, deputy mayor of Anin :
We did not and will not give up an inch of land or an olive tree which is truly a Palestinian symbol. An olive tree, which I have planted and cultivated, is in a place as a child for me, if not even more. We as Palestinians can never neglect (our land) unless we are forced to it with power as a result of the occupation.
38. Wide of barrier
39. Man harvesting olives with wooden stick
40. Wide of man walking through olive orchard
LEAD IN :
Israel is still building a controversial barrier along it's border, they say to keep out terror suspects.
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Thinking Bigger than Profit
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