Olive Shop Suppliers

Alternative Information Centre (AIC) is a joint Palestinian-Israeli project which, for more than 20 years, has produced and disseminated balanced and accurate information about the situation in Palestine and Israel, and analysis of the roots of the problem and possible solutions to it. Olive sells AIC publications including News From Within magazine, booklets, books and
DVDs. www.alternativenews.org

Alternative Tourism Group (ATG), based in Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem, was established to help people from all over the world to visit Palestine and experience for themselves the reality of the situation there. ATG is the publisher of the first Palestinian written and published guidebook to Palestine and culturally Palestinian areas of Israel, “Palestine & Palestinians”. www.atg.ps

Aseela strives to create opportunties for Palestinian women through the production of oliveoil skincare products and Fair Trade. Aseela is a women’s co-operative based in Bethlehem. Olive Co-op sells olive oil soap produced and packaged by Aseela.

The Atfaluna Centre for Deaf Children in Gaza serves as a medical and educational facility for deaf children from all over the Gaza Strip provides much-needed specialist services to support parents as well. Superb ceramic, embroidered and carved wood products from Atfaluna are made by deaf adults in the vocational programme to support themselves and the centre, and by the families of deaf children in order to supplement family incomes. www.atfaluna.net (link to more news from Atfaluna in Gaza)

Olive sells greetings cards from The British Shalom-Salaam Trust, a grant-giving charity created in response to the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East. It supports cross-community anti-poverty, health, education and human rights programmes with Israel’s 1967 borders - in the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan and other parts of the Middle East where Palestinians live as refugees. It focuses on small-scale, grassroots projects that may be overlooked by major funders. In Britain it supports educational work aiming to build understanding about the situation in the Middle East. The Trust is a Jewish initiative that welcomes supporters of all faiths and convictions. Charity No. 1103211.

Canaan Fair Trade is a Jenin-based Palestinian firm committed to practicing ‘Fair Trade’ along its supply chain. Established in 2004, Canaan markets “Products of Palestine” that are produced by the now more than 1,700 small farmers.

Cultural Heritage Enrichment Centre (CHEC) established in 1997, aims to: promote Palestinian cultural heritage; enrich cultural life in Old Nablus; restore architectural treasures in Nablus; and empower the local economy be developing traditional handicrafts. The centre also produces high quality olive oil soap and calendars. www.amrara.jeeran.com.

Dehaishe Women’s Collective was established at Dehaishe Refugee Camp in Bethlehem to use women’s existing skills to provide income for families where the traditional breadwinners are out of work, have been victims of the Intifada or are imprisoned by the Israeli authorities. It also enables women to earn a living whilst helping to preserve Palestinian culture and arts. www.dheisheh-ibdaa.net/home.htm. Olive sells a wide selection of their embroidered products including purses, bags and bracelets.

The Educational Bookshop, on Salah Eddin Street in East Jerusalem, is a Palestinian small business aimed at making information about Palestinian and international affairs available to a wide audience, both Palestinians and visitors. Olive sources Arabic phrase books, calendars and other ad hoc publications. www.educationalbookshop.com

Holyland Handicrafts Co-operative Society is a producers co-operative which allows the traditional olive-wood carving
crafts of Palestine to be maintained and income to be generated for families who, because of checkpoints and roadblocks, can no longer find employment away from home. www.holyland-handicraft.org The Co-operative Society is a member of IFAT, the international fair trade association.

<!– @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } –>

All Olive Co-op’s kuffiyahs are made in Palestine and sourced from two family businesses – one in the old city of Nablus, once the leading market city of Palestine but now reduced to poverty by the strangle-hold of checkpoints around the city, and from the family business of Jamal Zuhair Maraga in the Old City of Hebron. This area of the city around the Ibrahimi Mosque is subject to frequent settler attacks and construction, reducing once prosperous market trade to a tiny trickle of customers.

Lajee Centre in Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem, produced the illustrated children’s book, “The Boy and The Wall”. Lajee Centre is non-profit, non-partisan organisation, established in 1999 by a group of volunteers from Aida Refugee Camp. These volunteers wanted to make sure that younger generations will have more opportunites that they had when they were growing up, and that they have the guidance they need to be critical thinkers and good decision makers. Children in the Centre put on plays, learn dabka folk dancing, draw pictures, read books in the Centre’s library, and learn how to use the computer in the computer lab. The centre also organises trips so that children can learn about their world in a fun way, and gives children and youth important time to make friends of all ages and both genders. www.lajee.org

Oasis Workshop, founded in 1998 in Beit Sahour, provides opportunities for people with learning difficulties from the area’s villages and refugee camps to earn their own living, producing a range of gifts and cards.

Palestine Fair Trade Association ensures that farmers are paid a fair price and helps Palestinian villages to improve their facilities and market their produce. www.palestinefairtrade.org

Project Hope in Nablus is a volunteer run organisation providing a participatory and educational space for Palestinian youth and children, and opportunities for international volunteers. Committed to the principles of international humanitarian law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, its aim is to support children denied access to basic services by providing educational and recreational activities, medical and humanitarian relief and practical training that can empower them with hope and skills for the future. Olive sells soap from Nablus to assist Project Hope in raising well used funds. www.projecthope.ps

Qeera Co-operative press their olives into delicious, pesticide-free extra virgin olive oil in Qeera village and the neighbouring village of Dier Estia. Qeera Co-operative work with the non-governmental organisation PARC (Palestinian Agricultural Relif Comittee) to export their oilve oil to Zaytoun and Olive Co-op. www.pal-arc.org

Sindyanna is a women’s collective based in the Galilee. Sindyanna unites Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel in producing environmentally sustainable products - particularly olive oil, olive oil soap, za’atar, and postcards by Palestinian artists. Sindyanna work in a way designed to empower women, develop Arab agriculture, prevent the further confiscation of land from Palestinian-Israeli farmers and give a fair return to Palestinian farmers within Israel and in the West Bank. Members of IFAT, the international fair trade association. www.sindyanna.com

Windows for Peace is a group of Jews and Palestinian from both sides of the Green Line, working to bring young people together through education and media. Windows’ publications including Arabic and Hebrew magazine, greetings cards and unique Arabic and Hebrew alphabet poster are available through Olive. www.win-peace.org

Olive sells Zaytoun’s entire range of Palestinian products including olive oil in various sizes, recipe cards and greetings cards by Paula Cox. NEW Zaytoun products for 2007 include dates, almonds and cous cous. Zaytoun continue to be at the forefront of developing fair trade initiatives supporting communities in Palestine, particularly developing and importing Palestinian food products. Forthcoming www.zaytoun.org