Holy Land Olive Oil is a website and organization selling olive oil from Palestinian farmers. In recent years, an all volunteer brigade of Israelis and internationals has gone into Palestine to help local farmers get the olive crop harvested under conditions of extreme duress. The Holy Land Olive Oil project was founded to help sell the product of this effort, bringing vital income to subsistence farmers in Palestine, and creating a sustainable commercial enterprise.

Excerpts from the history of the effort:

"It all started with an email from Taayush, urging the Alliance members to buy Palestinian olive oil from PARC. The email came from Dudy, an ex-Bay Area resident - now Hebrew University professor and Taayush activist.

"Buying olive oil all the way from Palestine is no small undertaking. After some back and forth between a few Alliance members, it was decided to import a test shipment and see how it goes.

"Initially, the talk was about importing a whole container [approx 12-14 thousand liters] ... But Bashir's scheme of having a few people and organizations commit to buying a portion of the container did not pan out; and, Sandor was afraid to be sitting on lot of olive oil at the end of the day.

"The only organization that initially came through was US OMEN. They ordered 50 cases [containing 12 bottles each] on condition that the bottles arrive before the organization's May 4, 2003, annual banquet and fund-raising event. We ended up paying more for air shipping per bottle than for the bottle of oil itself.

"Even this modest initial effort would not have been possible without Gil, Dorit, Fadi, and Suzan, who bought several cases each. Given the volunteer nature of the effort, distribution would have been a nightmare without Sarah, Joy, and Allan at the San Francisco office of AFSC.

"A Jewish Voice for Peace also came through with an order for 25 cases. Committee members like Josh, David, Phylece, Jae, Mo, Steve, and others also helped with marketing and with pickup at the warehouse."

The olive harvest will begin soon, and this year's crop of olive oil should become available in the fall. Stay tuned to Holy Land Olive Oil for more information. The site also contains recipes and other related info. http://www.palestineoliveoil.org/index.html