2007 Olive Harvest Delegation

Interfaith Peace-Builders & American Friends Service Committee
Olive Harvest Delegation Arrives in Israel/Palestine

October 29, 2007

Interfaith Peace-Builders (IFPB) and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) are pleased to announce that their 23-member delegation to Israel/Palestine entered Israel at the Ben-Gurion airport Monday morning and is now safely in Jerusalem.

The purpose of this delegation, the 25th to make the trip since 2001, is to educate North American citizens about the region and deepen their understanding of its conflicts. This is the third delegation that IFPB and AFSC have co-sponsored since 2006.

The delegation comes amidst a crucial time in the Middle East. As Israeli and Palestinian negotiators prepare for a November peace conference hosted by the US Administration, the situation on the ground continues to worsen. The prospect of renewed peace negotiations has contributed to rising tensions in the region. As a result, a greater responsibility has fallen to everyday people in Israel and Palestine. Interfaith Peace-Builders delegates have the unique experience of learning about the Middle East through the eyes of those who live there.

The delegation will focus on the Palestinian olive harvest which takes place each autumn. The olive harvest is an occasion of particular cultural and economic importance for Palestinian communities and a time when tensions between Israeli settlers and Palestinian residents of the West Bank run high.

The group will tour the Israeli town of Sderot which has been targeted by Palestinian militants from within the impoverished Gaza Strip and will visit Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust Museum. Additionally, Rami Elhanan, an Israeli whose daughter was killed by a suicide bomber and who currently works for peace and justice with the Bereaved Parents? Circle, will address the group. And delegates will meet Israelis and Palestinians who once took up arms in the conflict and who now work with Combatants for Peace, an organization which has rejected violence and promotes reconciliation between the two peoples.

In addition, the delegation will hear from the nonviolent peace movement in Israel and Palestine. The group will visit the Palestinian village of Bili?in, which organizes weekly nonviolent demonstrations and recently won a high-profile case in the Israeli High Court challenging the route of Israel?s Separation Wall and the confiscation of their village lands. Delegates will also participate in a weekly vigil by the Israeli organization, Women in Black, which takes place every Friday in West Jerusalem.