Media in Slough Cover Producer Visit

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When Farmers Talk to Farmers… By Meic Llewellyn

Haitham Hasasneh is an agronomist with twenty years of experience in agriculture, He comes from a village to the north of Bethlehem and now lives in Ramallah, a city in the middle of Palestine’s West Bank. “We love our olive trees,” he told me when I met him in Machynlleth last week, “and our farmers know each one as an individual. I’m sure Welsh farmers are just the same with their fields, and their sheep.” Many of the olive groves – and the trees within them – are over a thousand years old, and the same Palestinian families have been tending the plantations for centuries.

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Coventry Telegraph: Fairtrade Palestinian Farmers Heading for Coventry Denied UK Entry

Farmers travelling from Palestine to address a Coventry Fairtrade event have been barred from entering Britain.

The three olive farmers who were set to speak at Coventry’s Herbert Art Gallery today have been denied visas by the UK Border Agency.

The farmers were due to speak at a series of events during the annual Fairtrade Fortnight, exactly a year after becoming the first olive oil producers in the world to be awarded Fairtrade status.

But the UK Border Agency has refused visas for Lina Mahmoud, Belal Eid and Nahed Besharieh.

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The Muslim News Article: Palestinian Farmers Denied Visas to Visit UK

The British government is being urged to overturn a decision denying three Palestinian farmers from visiting the UK.

Lina Mahmoud, Nahed Beshariah and Belal Eid were due to attend the Fairtrade Fortnight to promote the export of olive oil from the West Bank to the UK.

The decision to deny the farmers, who are the first olive oil producers in the world to be awarded Fairtrade status, was raised in parliament in an Early Day Motion from Labour backbench MP Katy Clark.

Clarke reminded the government that Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed delight about the initiative last year and called for the famers to be allowed entry into the UK.

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NUS Article: Hope in a Conflict Zone: The Zaytoun Story...

Zaytoun was recently featured in the NUS Magazine ‘Spotlight’. To read the full article click here