Olive Harvest 2013 DELEGATION to ISRAEL/PALESTINE

October 26 - November 8, 2013

Co-Sponsored with the Resource Center for Nonviolence
and the Santa Cruz Palestine-Israel Action Committee

Leaders: Sami Abed & Nancy Murray

This delegation will provide an opportunity to participate in the Palestinian olive harvest season — generally a time of great community activism, where people of all ages from Palestine, Israeli peace and justice groups, and international groups join farmers as they reap their harvest. It is international support that makes the harvest possible in many cases. You will hear from Palestinian farmers and learn of the importance of agriculture to the Palestinian economy and culture. As with other delegations, you will also meet additional Israelis and Palestinians working for peace and justice.

To learn more about the standard components of all delegations, click here.

DEADLINE TO APPLY: Applications are being taken on a rolling basis. Please submit an application ASAP to ensure space! Our last several delegations have filled up several months before departure, so please apply as soon as possible to reserve your space.  If you’ve missed the deadline, we might still be able to add you, but please contact us ASAP to see if this is a possibility.

Download Application for the Delegation Here

Leaders

Sami Abed is a Palestinian-American organizer/activist with a wide range of experience in working on issues of social justice in the Middle East. He has traveled to the region four times since 2005, including two trips with Interfaith-Peace Builders. Sami is a co-founder and core organizer of the Palestine-Israel Action Committee, a Santa Cruz community-based group that works on the Palestine/Israel conflict in conjunction with the Resource Center for Nonviolence. He is also completing an American Studies degree at U.C. Santa Cruz, where he has served as an organizer of UCSC's student group, the Committee for Justice in Palestine, for nearly five years. In addition to his work as an activist, Sami is a licensed paramedic, a 30-year local business owner in his community, and a labor union activist and organizer with United EMS Workers/AFSCME Local 4911.

Nancy Murray has been an activist for peace with justice in the Middle East since 1988, when she paid her first visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Holding a Ph.D. from Oxford University, she has taught at universities and worked as a human rights activist in the UK and Kenya as well as the United States.  She co-founded and directed The Middle East Justice Network (1989–1995) and the Gaza Mental Health Foundation (2000 to present).  The author of Palestinians: Life Under Occupation (1991), she has written numerous articles on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  For the past 25 years, she has served as director of education at the ACLU of Massachusetts.

The group will also be accompanied by IFPB Staff member, Jacob Pace.  Jake is Communications and Advocacy Coordinator at IFPB, and staffs the San Francisco office. Jake joined the organization in 2007 after first traveling to the region with an IFPB delegation in 2003. He previously worked with Partners for Peace, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz, California. He spent more than a year in Israel/Palestine between 2003 and 2005 working with the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem in Bethlehem and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in the Gaza Strip. His work experience has focused particularly on media advocacy and grassroots organizing. He co-led IFPB delegations in 2008 and 2010.

Logistics

The cost of the delegation will be around $2300. This includes 13 days of the delegation, hotel and home stay accommodations, breakfasts and dinners, local transportation, guides, speaker/event fees, basic tips and gratuities. Partial scholarships may be available for those with demonstrable need.

The cost does not include domestic and international airfare. Interfaith Peace-Builders works with a local travel agent in Jerusalem to secure the best group rates for the delegation to travel together on the same flight from Washington, DC to Israel/Palestine. Therefore, delegates do not need to book their own international airfare.

Delegates will be expected make arrangements to be in Washington DC by 2pm on October 26th.

Click here to learn much more about delegation specifics,
including who we meet, cost, application information

Photos from Past IFPB Delegations