As the olive harvest season approaches (starting in October until mid/late November), the International Solidarity Movement is calling all activists and supporters to join us on the ground in Palestine.
While this is a period when Palestinian families get together in the field and celebrate harvesting, it is also a time of increased violence and harassment by illegal Israeli settlers and Israeli soldiers. Palestinian olive trees are often close to settlements or inside Israeli “military areas”.
There will be therefore a strong need for volunteers to join the harvesters and form a protective presence. International volunteers are being called for by Palestinian communities, so there will be a strong welcome too.
Here is a write up of the ISM’s 2022 olive harvest campaign.
Here is a quote from of volunteers who have been in Palestine with ISM during summer 2023:
“While here, we’ve been proud to be part of the International Solidarity Movement, and to uphold the 20 years history of internationals following Palestinian leadership and supporting the struggle using non-violence. ISM in the past had up to 100 volunteers on the ground, spread across many different areas. During Covid, numbers dropped off entirely, and since then have remained low. Having a larger group of us here over the summer has enabled us not only to provide protective presence and support in Masafer Yatta, but also to reconnect with and establish contacts, and work on building structural capacity both in the ISM presence within Palestine, and the international support groups.”
This journal contains some more early summer 2023 updates from ISM voluteers.
You can find more info on joining us here. For the olive harvest, we encourage you to plan your trip to attend training at the start of October, or start of November. However, whether you are ready to book flights, or if you are in the earlier stages of considering travelling in the next weeks or months, please email at ISMtraining[at]riseup.net.