To Be In Solidarity, Picking Olives
One of the main activities during our trip was to be in solidarity with the Palestinian people through harvesting olives together. “Since the beginning of the second Intifada in 2000, the olive harvest has been overshadowed by the Israeli policies of repression, closure, blockage of streets, confiscation of agricultural lands, as well as repeated attacks against Palestinian farmers by Israeli settlers. Now with the construction of the Apartheid Wall and the continuous expansion of Israeli settlements at the expense of agricultural land in occupied Palestine, many farmers are separated from their trees, and help is most needed.
Building on experience from previous years, the JAI and the ATG have planned a program for civil international solidarity with Palestinian people and farmers. The objective of this program is to mobilize as many people as possible for olive picking, especially in areas that are situated in proximity to Israeli settlements and bypass roads, in order to help Palestinian farmers harvest their olive trees which they might be unable to do without international support. Also, the event has brought awareness to hundreds of people from many countries around the world about real life under the Israeli Military Occupation, and the experience itself was referred to by several participants as a life changing one” (See Alternative Tourism Group’s website).
These two days of olive picking actually turned out to be more than just being in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We were part of a group of people from countries like Great Britain, Sweden, India, Spain, the Netherlands and other states within the the US. Moving and very meaningful to me was the presence of Jewish people, some of them the children of Holocaust survivors. As a South African it was an amazing experience to meet people from an older generation who came to South Africa in the eighties to be in solidarity with the oppressed who struggled under the joke of apartheid.
Maybe the richest experience was picking olives with a Palestinian farmer, while sitting together in the tree. Although we could not understand each other’s language there was a common bond between the two of us as we share humanity in a culture where Palestinians are regarded as less than human. It was as if somehow we understood one another, knowing that w
e are responsible for the other’s good will, me by helping him harvest olives and him by offering me hospitality in providing coffee, tea, and a wonderful meal of chicken, rice, and yogurt.
For that moment we all were in solidarity, citizens from so many nations around the world including Palestinians and Jews. For that moment we realized our need for one another. We saw one another as neighbors, partners in life whom we need to fully experience wholeness. We need one another to be fully human!
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