Making their world debut with this UK tour, youth from Balata Refugee Camp, Palestine will make a stop to perform their powerful original piece, A’edoon in London on Tuesday the 23rd of August, at St Georges Theatre, 49 Tufnell Park Road, N7 0PS.

Alternating between dance and drama, this innovative performance takes the audience through a rollercoaster of the extremes of human emotion - from pain and sadness, resentment and outrage, to laughter and finally inspiration and hope.

The children of this group come from extremely difficult backgrounds; usually from homes missing family members in prison or murdered. To combat the despair and isolation of their situations, they have created an artistically captivating and politically poignant form of resistance, A’edoon.

Originally based on Marcel Khalife’s “Ahmed Al-Arabi” this production chronices the expulsion of Palestinians from their village and their ensuing oppression as refugees. While the people are trying to continue their lives by building schools and houses, the Israeli soldiers come back, attempting to force everybody to move again, to become refugees a second time over. As the camp inhabitants scatter and panic, a young boy is lost. Attempts by his sister to find him are to no avail, as it slowly dawns upon her that he was killed by the soldiers.

Half of the performance is Dabke, a traditional Palestinian dance. Focused on the legs, the boys and girls fly brilliantly across the stage in unison and in time with the music, wearing beautiful locally produced costumes. The music and singing is live, performed by members of the group.

suggested donation £5 ? no-one turned away.

Olive Co-operative cordially invites you to the London launch of “Palestine and the Palestinians” on Friday 9th September 2005, 6.30-8pm. “Palestine and the Palestinians,” published in the West Bank by the Beit Sahour-based Alternative Tourism Group, is the first English-language guide to be published since the beginning of the second Intifada which comprehensively covers the whole of the West Bank and Gaza, as well as areas of Israel which still maintain strong Palestinian populations and identity. The book contains a wealth of information on the history, culture and ecology of Palestine and Israel, ideal for the armchair traveller as well as the visitor to
the region.

The launch, which is kindly hosted by Raffoul Darrer Architects, will take place at: Kings Yard, Ennismore Avenue, Chiswick, London W4 1SE. Drinks,
including Palestinian Taybeh beer, will be served. Please RSVP to Olive Co-operative: sarah@olivecoop.com, 0161 273 1970 or 0845 456 1472 (UK local rate). Due to limited space, we would be grateful if this invitation was not forwarded on without prior consultation.

For directions and public transport information see: rdaarchitects.com/map.htm Review copies of the book are available to the press; please contact us on the details below.

Olive Co-operative Ltd
Responsible tourism, trade and education in the Middle East
+44 (0)161 273 1970 or 0845 456 1472 (UK local rate)
www.olivecoop.com

Muhammad Qashta, 23, due to be married, an unarmed civilian was killed on Sunday 7th August 2005. He was shot in the head and chest by Israeli military. Muhammad was outside his home in Rafah, Gaza.

Muhammad is the cousin of a close friend of ours at Zaytoun. We send our condolences to his family and friends.

I ask that we listen harder and speak louder about what is happening to our friends in Gaza. Whilst the media is full of ‘news’ of the disengagement and the voices of the illegal settlers it is devoid of the facts and experience being felt by Palestinian’s in Gaza.

The news of Muhammad’s death reached us through our friend. We are distressed that he is suffering and lucky to know him and have a window into the truth in Palestine. If we help each other to look through windows for truth then the death, suffering and oppression and lies can not continue with impunity.

A graffiti Artist described by the BBC as a “Secretive guerrilla artist” has used his creative talent on the 425 mile long aparthied wall.

Political graffiti by the artist known only as Banksy adorns sections of the Wall, it can viewed at banksy.co.uk

The 425-mile concrete wall was constructed outside of Israels own recognized borders, reaching into fertile Palestinian land leaving whole communities stranded and unviable.

The wall is more about grabbing yet more Palestinian territory rather then stopping suicide bombers.

In Palestine, the last ten days of October in Palestine are marked by the celebration of the olive harvest season. This agricultural event is of special significance to the Palestinian economy where all energies and efforts are mobilized during this period.

For the past five years, the olive harvest has been overshadowed by the Israeli policies of repression, closure, blockage of streets, confiscation of agricultural lands, as well as repeated attacks against Palestinian farmers by Israeli settlers. Now with the construction the Apartheid Wall at the expense of the agricultural lands, many farmers are separated from their lands.

This year, the Joint Advocacy Initiative of The East Jerusalem YMCA and the YWCA of Palestine, in coordination with the Alternative Tourism Group and the Environmental Education Center, has planned a program for civil international solidarity with Palestinian people and farmers. The objective of this program is to mobilize as many people as possible for olive picking, especially in areas that are situated in proximity of Israeli settlements, and by-pass roads in order to help Palestinian farmers harvest their olive trees that they might be unable to harvest without international support.

Picking olives in Palestine is considered to be a remarkable experience because Palestine is the country of olives; about 13 million olive trees grow in Palestine on more than 70% of the agricultural lands. The olive tree in Palestine is an ancient source of basic livelihood and a great symbol of peace to the Palestinians. It is considered a holy tree being mentioned sixteen times in the Bible and eleven times in the Qur?an.

We are calling for an international mobilization of activists that support Palestinians and their legitimate rights. This program is designed to break the isolation of Palestinian villages and to bring about an effective help to the Palestinian farmers through international solidarity.

The program will take place in the Bethlehem area, primarily in villages and areas that are threatened to be confiscated or are close to Israeli settlements that they are difficult for Palestinians to reach alone due to the current situation. The program will run from October 21st until the 30th and participation is open for any interested individuals or organization.

Besides picking olives, the program will feature introductory presentations about the organizing institutions, current situation in Palestine, effect of the Apartheid Wall, tours in the old city of Jerusalem and the nativity church in Bethlehem, a tour in Hebron, and cultural evenings and social gatherings. Below is a suggested tentative schedule for the program:

Olive Picking ? 2005 tentative schedule:

21/10/2005: Arrival to the airport and transfer to Beit Sahour to meet representatives from the organizing institutions for an overview and discussion of the program. Dinner and overnight in Beit Sahour.

22/10/2005: Half day picking olives in a selected field followed by lunch. Meeting at ARIJ (Applied Research Institute Jerusalem) for a presentation about the situation of the wall, land confiscation. Dinner and overnight in Beit Sahour.

23/10/2005: Picking olives in a selected field followed by a lunch break. Cultural evening at Jadal / Alternative Information Center (AIC), dinner will be served. Overnight in Beit Sahour.

24/10/2005: Half day picking olives in a selected field. A tour in the Bethlehem area to show realities of the Israeli occupation such as refugee camps, the Apartheid Wall, by-pass roads and fences, settlements, destroyed houses, etc. Dinner and overnight in Beit Sahour.

25/10/2005: A tour in the old city of Jerusalem. Welcoming and lunch at the YWCA headquarters in Jerusalem followed by a settlement tour around Jerusalem and overnight in Beit Sahour.

26/10/2005: Half day picking olives in a selected field followed by a meeting with a political figure for an overview of the current political situation. Dinner and overnight in Beit Sahour.

27/10/2005: A tour in the old city of Hebron through the market and how it is affected by Israeli settlers. A meeting with a co-organizing institute followed by dinner and overnight in Beit Sahour.

28/10/2005: Half day picking olives in a selected field. Meeting with Joint Advocacy Initiative of the East Jerusalem YMCA and the YWCA of Palestine advocacy officers for an introduction and overview of their campaign. Dinner and overnight in Beit Sahour.

29/10/2005: Half day picking olives in the fields. Evaluation meeting with association representatives of the program followed by dinner at a local restaurant with members from the organizing institutions.

30/10/2005: Transfer to the airport for departure.

If you would like more information about this please drop me an email: heather@zaytoun.org

MADRE, an international women’s human rights organization, reports that Israel’s disengagement from Gaza will not alleviate the suffering that Palestinian women and families have experienced under the Israeli occupation.

In fact, prospects for Palestinians may worsen after the policy is carried out. A closer look at the plan reveals that Israel’s current stranglehold over Gaza and the West Bank may even be strengthened after disengagement.

Military violence, economic misery, and “strangulation”-a term used to define Israel’s policy of preventing Palestinians from traveling within the occupied territories-will likely continue, and even worsen, after Israel’s disengagement from Gaza. For example, “[u]nder an economic siege imposed in 2000, Israel cut off Gazans’ access to jobs and trade,
causing unemployment rates to soar to nearly 50 percent and doubling the ranks of the poor to 77 percent of the population. Israel has threatened to make this siege permanent after disengagement,” writes MADRE, “which will only worsen Palestinian suffering.”

MADRE also points out that under international law, Israel’s military occupation will continue because the Israeli army will still surround and control the Gaza Strip. Israel will also still control Gaza’s borders, coastline, airspace, telecommunications, water, and electricity, and maintain its hold over Gaza’s economy by controlling the flow of people and goods in and out of the Gaza Strip.

Nevertheless, Israel claims that disengagement will free it of any responsibility under international law for the civilian population in Gaza. In effect, writes MADRE, “Israel is trying to ‘disengage’ from its obligations to the population under its military occupation-to control Palestinian land with no accountability to the Palestinian people.”

Read the full report: “Reconfigured Occupation: Gaza Disengagement Will Not Ease Suffering for Palestinian Women and Families”

madre.org