When fellow syndicalist, anti-fascist and friend of Palestine Björn Pettersson passed away too soon, in the summer of 2016, we at Jord & Frihet were asked if we could help with a collection in memory of Björn and in support of Palestine. We accepted and the collection brought in SEK 15,000, which we in the association have sent down to our partners PARC (Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees) in Palestine for planting olive trees.
In December, PARC distributed large olive tree seedlings to three schools in the Jerusalem area: 30 seedlings to Jaba' High School for girls, 90 seedlings to Beit Ijza High School for girls, and 40 seedlings to Beit Enan High School for girls.
The choice of planting in particular schools was decided after a proposal from our partners. The idea is partly that the students get the opportunity to strengthen their connection with the earth and with the olive trees - the ancient symbol of life in Palestine - and partly that the fruits of the olive trees will in the not too distant future help the poorer students at the schools to get a small, extra income. The students at the schools where the olive trees were planted will be able to harvest the olives themselves and sell them to PARC for the production of olive oil.
We at Jord & Frihet feel proud to have had the opportunity to participate in and be involved in designing this project in memory of Björn Pettersson. Our hope is that the trees will be able to grow large in a free Palestine.
We also want to wish all our customers, friends, acquaintances and followers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2017. As our warehouses in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö are now completely empty, we are taking a short break but will return soon with information about when the next shipment will be olive oil may be included. For next year, we have increased the amount of oil a little further. At the time of writing, our partners in the West Bank are out among the cooperatives in the villages and are recording the amount of oil produced, testing its quality and discussing price and needs.
We want to thank all of you out there: You who buy the olive oil we import, you who sell it. You who help us carry or transport boxes and spread information about Earth and Freedom's work. As you probably already know, all our work is non-profit: during the twelve years we have been working on this, no one in the association has received a salary or fee. We do the work in solidarity with Palestinian civil society: with the grassroots, with the farmers and their families, and with everyone else who depends on the income from the olive oil. Against the occupation, for freedom!