middlejournal: Gaza’s olive harvest season began today, as celebrated by the Ministry of Agric
middlejournal: Gaza’s olive harvest season began today, as celebrated by the Ministry of Agriculture, according to a recent article on Middle East Monitor. As many as 80,000 families rely on olive harvesting as a means of livelihood, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, occupied Palestinian territory 2012 Olive Harvest Fact-sheet. Some other key facts on Palestine and its relationship to olive harvesting: - Nearly half (48%) of the agricultural land in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt; aka Gaza) is planted with 8 million olive trees; the vast majority are in the West Bank. - The olive oil industry makes up 14% of the agricultural income for the oPt. - In the West Bank, over 7,500 olive trees belonging to Palestinians were damaged or destroyed by Israeli settlers, between January and mid October 2012. Statistics for 2013 are yet unknown. I’ve seen very few places in New York City that sell Palestinian olive oil products. However, Middle East Books, a shop that is part of Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, sells organic Palestinian olive oils and other Palestinian trade-fair items such as Za’atar, Couscous and beautiful hand-made pottery items. Check out their website by clicking here. (Photo credit: Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor.com) -- source link
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