Olive Co-op, one of the new breed of “Solidarity Tourism” organisations has announced the dates for two of its 2007 tours.
The “Trees for Life Tour” (Saturday 6 January – Saturday 13 January 2007 ) offers guests the opportunity to visit the nurseries near Jenin where the Palestine Trade Association grows young olive trees which are then offered to fair trade programme families to replace trees destroyed by the Israeli army, Separation Wall and settlements. Guests will also have the chance to join in with planting new trees and see where those trees sponsored through the scheme are situated, meeting the farmers and communities whose livelihoods are being supported.
Olive Co-operative has raised over £15,000 on 2006 for this particular scheme, including nearly £10,000 from Zakariyya mosque in Bolton and a generous sum from the UK New Statesman’s offer of olive trees with magazine subscriptions.
A second tour – Olive Co-op’s “Easter tour” (Wednesday 4 to Wednesday 11 April) offers guests the chance to visit the Palestinian cities of Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah or Jericho, and to attend the Easter celebrations in Jerusalem. It will run concurrently with a special tour organised in conjunction with Teachers Friends of Palestine. Participants will meet teaching colleagues in a range of Palestinian and Israeli schools, visit sites of historical, religious and cultural interest and meet key organisations working towards peace with justice. While the tour is designed with teachers in mind, it is open to anyone who would like to take part. Teachers Friends of Palestine is a recently established group of London based teachers whose aim is to raise awareness and garner support for teachers in Palestine through a variety of activities, and founder members of the group will be guiding the tour.
Valere Tjolle
