2008 Olive Harvest Delegation November 8-22, 2008
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Join the American Friends Service Committee and Interfaith Peace-Builders (IPFB) this fall to travel to Israel/Palestine. Your participation as an eyewitness to the situation will enrich your understanding of the conflict and empower your work back in the United States.
This delegation provides an excellent 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. International support for the harvest in many cases makes the harvest possible. In addition to expressing solidarity, participants in the delegation will learn about obstacles that impact the harvest.
In addition to several days helping with the harvest, the delegation will meet with ‘ordinary’ Israelis and Palestinians, and people and organizations working for peace and justice. Delegates will confront and analyze the US role in the conflict and wrestle with ways to translate your experience to others when you return home.
In Fall 2006, IFPB and AFSC began working together to plan delegations to Israel/Palestine. Since then, we have sent 4 delegations and 76 people to the region.
Who is Leading the Delegation?
Jennifer
Bing-Canar is the National
coordinator of the Middle East Peacebuilding
Program for AFSC. Her involvement in
Middle East issues began in 1982, when she
lived in Israel and Palestine and researched
the Israeli peace movement. She later
volunteered as a teacher for three years at the
Palestinian Quaker schools in Ramallah and
worked with Save the Children during the first
Palestinian intifada. Since 1989, Jennifer has
worked for AFSC in their Middle East program.
She has organized hundreds of speaking tours,
conferences, advocacy campaigns, exhibits, and
workshops on Israel, Palestine, and Iraq.
Jennifer also produced two documentary films on
the Arab-American community in Chicago.
Alta Schwartz is the director of outreach for the Middle East Institute at Georgia State University. She has been involved with Middle East Peace issues since 1995, and has worked with organizations that are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Arab based. Alta serves on the national board of Interfaith Peace Builders and has been a member of the Middle East Peace Education Program of the AFSC Committee (South Eastern Regional office in Atlanta, GA) since 1995. She has traveled through much of the Middle East, and has been both a delegation member and co-leader with IFPB, most recently in 2006.
Take Action
and discuss the Israeli/Palestinian
conflict
with your
friends and family.