The JAI-ATG Olive Planting Program, part of the JAI Olive Tree Campaign, lasts for 10 days in February each year, where people of any age and background from all over the world can join.
Participants are given the opportunity to listen to Palestinian farmers’ stories of how their properties are threatened by settlers, the Apartheid Wall, bypass roads or Israeli settlement expansions.
They plant a selection of the trees sponsored that season, usually 4 fields with approximately 400 olive trees in each.
In addition to planting, the participants get a chance to visit the Palestinian towns of Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Hebron and Ramallah. They also meet with Palestinian organizations that provide information on conflict-related issues.
From the 8th to the 17th of February 2020, the JAI, together with the Alternative Tourism Group (ATG), have organized the Olive Planting Program, where 23 international participants + 4 international volunteers have joined.
The program included 4 olive planting activities, where each the participants planted 200-250 internationally-sponsored olive trees through the Olive Tree Campaign, at threatened Palestinian fields in the villages of Jabaa, Al-Khader and Wad Foukin in the Bethlehem area.
Guided tours were also organized for the participants in the areas of Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Hebron, and Ramallah (optionally), where they witnessed the various Israeli occupation measures and Palestinian culture and sites.
It also included introductions and presentations in afternoons and evenings to the main issues related to the Israeli occupation, conflict, and international campaigns to counter the Israeli oppression and injustice.