Tag: volunteers

Olive Harvest 2022: Call for Volunteers

 

September 15 | International Solidarity Movement | Occupied Palestine

ISM is issuing an urgent call out for volunteers to join the 2022 Olive Harvest at the invitation of Palestinian communities, starting next month. 

Olive trees are a national symbol in Palestine. As hundreds of thousands of trees have been uprooted by the Israeli military and illegal settlers – more than 11,700 olive trees were destroyed in 2021 alone – harvesting has become more than a source of income, but a form of resistance. 

Recent years have also seen an explosion in settler violence against Palestinian communities, and a series of illegal settler outposts set up across the West Bank.

The new outposts – primarily located in the northern regions of the West Bank close to the cities and towns of Salfit, Hares and Nablus – puts Palestinian farmers in these areas at an increased risk of violence and attacks this Olive Harvest. 

ISM is calling for volunteers to join Palestinian farmers on the ground to support them to assert their right to earn a living and be present on their lands. 

International activists joining the harvest engage in non-violent direct action, practical support and document human rights abuses against Palestinians, which enables many families to pick their olives.  ISM activists work alongside other international organisations to support farmers during the Olive Harvest. 

The harvest will begin on October 1 and run until mid-November 2022. We request a minimum 2 week commitment but we ask that if possible, volunteers could stay as long as they can. Our work is dependent on relationships with the Palestinian communities in which we work, and a long-term presence is a massive help towards that end. We kindly ask volunteers to start arriving in the first week of October if possible, so we are prepared when the harvest begins. ISM activists will receive training upon arrival with information on what to expect and how to act in what can be tense situations. 

To register your interest in joining the Olive Harvest this year contact ismtraining@riseup.net

 

When: October 1 – mid-November 

Where: the occupied West Bank, Palestine

How to sign up: email us at ismtraining@riseup.net

 

More information on the Olive Harvest: 

  • https://www.btselem.org/settler_violence/2021_olive_harvest

 

Summer of Return 2018

This is a call for all those who believe in justice, equality and freedom to come to Palestine and support the Palestinian struggle for liberation.

Palestinian women flying kites at The Great March of Return in Gaza (Mohammed Asad, via Mondoweiss)

The International Solidarity Movement is looking for volunteers from now until the end of August to join the Summer of Return campaign. Volunteers will assist actions across Palestine that raise global awareness of the Great March of Return, large-scale popular protests in Gaza, consisting of thousands of demonstrators each Friday demanding to implement their right to return to their land and homes. While the brutal siege of Gaza has transformed the strip into an open air prison camp, it is almost impossible to enter the isolated strip. However solidarity actions with the Great March of Return are taking place across Palestine. Volunteers will support nonviolent actions of popular resistance against Israeli occupation and apartheid. Human rights defenders will also offer accompaniment to Palestinians and their communities who face daily harassment, risk of physical violence and arrest by occupation forces and settlers.

Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip attempted to cross the highly fortified fence separating the enclave (Al-Jazeera)

Since the start of the Marches, at least 135 unarmed protesters have been shot dead and more than 14,000 wounded by Israeli forces (UNOCHA), including children, medical staff, journalists, and the disabled. Gaza’s health system has been pushed to the brink of collapse, as hospitals struggle to handle an influx of serious and life-threatening injuries. Palestinians under siege in Gaza are marching home to the villages and cities from which they were expelled. They are marching out of the concentration camp that Israel has transformed Gaza into. They are marching to claim the international human right of refugees to return. Because of this, the Israeli occupying forces are murdering them in cold blood. The courage and sacrifice of this March demands all to stand up and end Israeli impunity and apartheid..

Palestinian youth play during the mass rally on April 11, 2018 (Xinhua/Stringer)

The ISM is a Palestinian-led movement which is committed to non-violent action. We will provide further information on our principles and other necessary information in a two day training course in our Ramallah office from the 2nd to the 4th July and from the 2nd to the 4th August.

More information on training here.

Palestinian medics attend to an injured woman during the march (MEE/Mohammed al-Hajjar)

For background on the Great March of Return see here.