End the Occupation

Farming Families Need Our Help

by Mike Coogan, Manager of Finances and Administration
October 27th, 2011

Today, Palestinian farming families in the Israeli-occupied West Bank village of Huwwara will attempt to access their land for the annual olive harvest.

Since Monday, at least four Palestinian civilians have been injured by Israeli settlers while harvesting olives, including a 12-year-old boy.  

	Above: The hills outside of Huwwara Village where farmers are hoping to harvest their olives. (click to enlarge)
	Above: Israeli soldiers waiting on a hill near Huwwara after notifying residents via text message that anyone who goes to harvest almonds will be shot. (click to enlarge)

Palestinians across the West Bank have been attacked by the Israeli military, harassed by settlers, and prevented from accessing their land for the harvest, even after securing approval from Israeli authorities.

According to human rights organizations, Israeli settlers have destroyed 7,500 Palestinian olive trees this season alone, causing an estimated $500,000 in damages. 

These aren't isolated incidents.  They are part of Israel’s illegal military occupation and system of apartheid that is supported by U.S. policies, financed by American taxpayers, and used to systematically deprive Palestinians of their rights. 

Today, you can help us end U.S. backing for this system by supporting the US Campaign.  When you do so, you’ll also help Palestinian farming families remain steadfast on their land in the face of Israeli human rights abuses.

For every $25 that you donate to the US Campaign, we will plant an olive tree for a Palestinian farming family.  For each $100 contribution, we'll plant five trees for families like those in Huwwara.

After you make a contribution, we’ll send you a certificate of planting, which can also be dedicated in honor of or in memory of your loved ones.     

Your generous support will not only help us replant olive trees that were recently destroyed; it also will support our work to prevent such abuses from occurring in the future.

Your contribution will ensure that we can ramp up our organizing efforts in communities across the country to end U.S. support for Israeli occupation and apartheid, and continue to challenge corporations that profit from Israel’s human rights abuses of Palestinians. 

In years past, you've helped us and our partners at the Palestinian Fair Trade Association replant thousands of olive trees for Palestinian farming families, trees which will provide a sustainable income for generations to come.  This year, the US Campaign and Palestinian farmers need your help more than ever.

In the words of one farmer, Abu Fadi Amin, "when I sit under this tree and I ponder the many years it has lived and all the seasons it has endured, I know there is hope." Only with your support can we work to fulfill that hope, and change U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine to support freedom, justice, and equality.

The arc of our moral universe only bends toward justice through the efforts of people like you, so please make your contribution today.