Nine Michiganders from the Traverse City region are running across Palestine to raise awareness around issues facing West Bank olive farmers. Glen Arbor Sun editor Jacob Wheeler is with them, and submitting dispatches.
Cultural differences, confusing politics, military checkpoints, consoling worried family back home.
Think that’s tough? Not compared to a five-day ultra-marathon across mountainous country with roadsides often strewn with loose rocks or garbage, and cars not used to seeing runners.
By Day 4 of the Run Across Palestine, the American runners were battling physical adversity that may have surpassed the other variables at play here during this 129-mile trek across the West Bank of Palestine — a region vying for statehood. Claire Everhart was turning around and running the downhill descents backwards to avoid pressure on her sore knees; Randi Lyn Stoltz’s kneecap swelled to the size of a ripe fruit, and David Gardner just kept his mouth shut and ran.
Watch some of the physical adversity here in part 5 of Aaron Dennis’ and my “The People and the Olive” series:
Nine Michiganders from the Traverse City region are running across Palestine to raise awareness around issues facing West Bank olive farmers. Glen Arbor Sun editor Jacob Wheeler is with them, and submitting dispatches.
On Monday, Day 3 of the Run Across Palestine, Michigan musician Joshua Davis, Aaron Dennis and I got to visit a dance troupe, art and folklore center in Ramallah — the de facto capitol of the West Bank — called El-Funoun, which is keeping Palestinian art and creative expression alive as a form of protest against the occupation.
El-Funon is also battling a conservative Palestinian society that doesn’t always welcome creative expression and equality. Check out this video of what we learned at El-Funoun.
JERUSALEM — Today, the Run Across Palestine left Beit Omar, an olive-farming village in the West Bank that struggles for access to its land in the face of encroaching Israeli settlements, and ran toward Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The runners faced no disruptions from the military, unlike yesterday — the first day of the run.
Once they arrived in Bethlehem (located in the Palestinian West Bank), the “Separation Barrier” wall between it and Jerusalem (which has been part of Israel proper since 1967) forced the runners to confront the specter, and metaphor, of a wall erected to divide people; they marveled at the graffiti and protest art that covers the east side of the wall — reminiscent of the Berlin Wall, and they lamented having to say goodbye to their Palestinian support staff, who were not allowed to enter Jerusalem because they don’t hold Israeli citizenship.
Here are some of the runners’ responses:
“It’s incredible, this wall is so big and so fierce,” said Run Across Palestine musician and Lansing resident Joshua Davis, as he studied graffiti pictures and poignant expressions written on the east side of the wall. They included statements like ‘This wall may take care of the present, but it has no future’. “Art is powerful in so many ways. It brings people together, it sends a message. This can send a clearer message than a thousand speeches can.”
“The only thing I have to compare it to in my memory is the Berlin wall, which was doing pretty much the exact same thing — isolating a specific people and barring them from free movement for political and religious reasons,” said Run Across Palestine organizer Timothy Young, from Honor, Mich. “Visually they look identical to each other, and all the graffiti is the same, just in a different language. But it’s all language of liberation and struggle, and that’s clearly what’s going on here.”
Randy Lyn of Frankfort, Mich., was more succinct: “On this side they made an ugly thing look beautiful.”
Chris Treter of Traverse City, a brainchild of the Run Across Palestine, found hope in the writing on the wall. “It’s really inspirational and powerful,” he said. “It’s amazing how many people around the world come here and recognize how wrong that wall is and how oppressive it is, and they put graffiti all over it expressing those feelings.”
Passing through the checkpoint required entering a series of narrow hallways separated by barred walls — a feeling perhaps akin to being herded like animals through an industrial farm.
“It’s a sad feeling to leave our friends, and to go through these bars here in a temporary prison,” said videographer Aaron Dennis of Traverse City.
View this video of the runners confronting the wall:
Project supporter, two French activists arrested; runners continue
BEIT OMAR, Palestine — The Run Across Palestine had gone no more than 10 kilometers between At-Tuwani and Beit Omar, in the southern West Bank, when the Israeli military and border control stopped the run in its tracks. Confusion over whether the runners had the right to walk on the side of the road culminated in the arrest of Run Across Palestine supporter Nasser Abufarha and two French activists. No reason was given for the arrests, and no reason was given for why the run was stopped.
The Run Across Palestine is a project of Michigan-based On the Ground to support Palestinian fair-trade olive farmers. The Run is scheduled to complete 129 miles over five days, between the Hebron Hills in the southern West Bank and Jenin in the north. The runners are staying in olive farming communities along the way. The initial delegation of 10 Americans, including six runners, three journalists and one musician arrived in At-Tuwani yesterday to a joyous community celebration that included planting olive trees, speeches, theater presentations, live music and dancing. Palestinians, French and other foreign nationals joined the run today.
Almost immediately after leaving At-Tuwani, a Palestinian village next to two Israeli settlements that are deemed illegal according to the United Nations, Israeli soldiers stopped and questioned the runners. It quickly became clear to the runners that the authorities didn’t have laws opposed to, or a policy relating to, foreigners running along public highways. Nevertheless, the runners were told that if a single participant touched the pavement, Abufarha, a Palestinian-U.S. dual citizen, would be arrested.
No more than 2 kilometers later, at the top of a hill overlooking the West Bank’s vast olive groves, Israeli military and border control vehicles stopped the Americans, French and Palestinians again, though they had not stepped on the pavement. Reinforcements arrived, increasing the police force to approximately 15. The Americans’ passports were temporarily confiscated, Abufarha was arrested and driven away by the police, and calls were made to the Palestine Solidarity Network in Beit Omar to bring the passports of the three French citizens. Two of the passports were located, but the Israeli soldiers grew impatient when the third couldn’t be found, and arrested two of the French activists, Florian and Tomas, who locked arms while lying on the ground and were forcibly dragged into a police vehicle. Immediately after the French citizens were driven away, the third passport was located.
Abufarha and the French activists were all released later in the day. Abufarha was charged by the Israelis with “ordering an illegal demonstration and march” even though he didn’t organize the run, which wasn’t political in nature.
Reuters photographers and videographers, Run Across Palestine’s media team and a smattering of other journalists documented the entire scene, which took place over two hours. Shortly after the Israeli military left, the runners took busses up the road, and then resumed their run.
“Why is it that we’re allowed to run on roads in any other country in the world, but not here?” asked Chris Treter, runner and organizer of the Run Across Palestine. “What’s different about this country?”
Last year, for example, On the Ground organized the Run Across Ethiopia, which featured 10 U.S. runners logging 250 miles over 10 days to raise money for, and awareness surrounding, fair-trade coffee farmers in Yirgachefe. The event raised approximately $200,000 to build three schools in the impoverished rural region. That run, in January 2010, was without incident, and featured hundreds of Ethiopian farmers and children running together with the American ultra-marathoners. Not so in the Holy Land.
The Run Across Palestine is a complement to the Run Across Ethiopia. In the politically volatile West Bank, 45 percent of arable land is devoted to growing olive trees, employing some 100,000 Palestinian farmers. Hundreds of thousands of olive trees have been uprooted in recent years by the Israeli military and Israeli settlers.
Videos of the arrests to come soon. Follow news from the Run Across Palestine at www.RunAcrossPalestine.org.
AT-TUWANI, Palestine — Today we planted olive trees, and tomorrow we’ll begin running across Palestine. Through both acts, we hope to enlighten our countrymen in the United States, and the world, about the humanity and the struggles faced by the West Bank’s embattled olive farmers.
We arrived in At-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills this afternoon — about half a mile from an Israeli settlement and an hour’s drive from Jerusalem. The contrast between the old bazaars and tourist hotels of the Holy City, where we awoke this morning, and At-Tuwani is incredible. Here the hilly landscape resembles a rocky moonscape, and here some residents still live in caves. Others live in homes that the Israeli army has threatened to demolish.
Our entourage this afternoon included a truck carrying 500 olive donated saplings. The townsfolk immediately led us to an open field where we — Americans and Palestinians alike — dug two-foot holes and planted the olive trees. They’ll reach maturity in 15 years, and will feed and provide an export crop for generations of Palestinians, as long as a person, or an army, doesn’t uproot them.
Afterwards, we walked up the hill to the village and gathered in the schoolhouse courtyard — a simple concrete slab — for a celebration of speeches, music, dancing by local youth, theater skits about life under the occupation, and an impromptu performance by the Run Across Palestine’s “musician-in-residence” Josh Davis, of Steppin’ In It fame.
“We started here because it’s here that you’ve shown the perseverance to stay on your land,” said Chris Treter, a brainchild behind both the Run Across Palestine and last year’s Run Across Ethiopia. “Thank you for receiving us and thank you for being here,” he told the crowd of approximately 300 locals, including men and women in traditional garb, teenagers in hip modern clothing, and playful children.
We were treated to a simple but delicious meal of rice, lentils, soup and pita bread — the sort of meal that tastes nearly as good as a $50 per plate splurge, because the meal was created out of gratitude.
It’s those kinds of interactions that we hope will define our run the next five days. Stay tuned for more.
JERUSALEM, OLD CITY — This morning, before we departed Bethlehem and the West Bank to return to Jerusalem, Run Across Palestine coordinators Timothy Young (from Honor, Michigan) and Vivien Sansour took half an hour to plant an olive tree in Sansour’s back yard — a vista that looks out over Bethlehem and stretches into Israel proper.
The act seemed simple enough. Dig a two-foot hole in the ground and insert a sapling whose roots are encased in earth. Spread rich manure around the plant and fill in the hole. But its ramifications will be felt for hundreds of years. The tree planted in Vivien’s back yard will reach maturity in 15 years and thrive long after the humans who planted it are gone.
Watch the video here:
That’s why the Run Across Palestine delegation is here in the Holy Land, of course — to raise awareness about the importance of olive trees for the Palestinian people, and to help them plant their children’s olive trees.
The act complete, we put away the tools, washed our hands, and climbed into a waiting taxi for the trip to Jerusalem — along a new highway that connects Israel with its West Bank settlements.
By mid afternoon the last of the participants in the upcoming Run Across Palestine were all gathered at the Hashimi Hotel in the Old City — some tired, some weary from the plane trip across the Atlantic — but all mesmerized by the golden Dome of the Rock and Western Wall visible in the distance.
BETHLEHEM — Walls are often built to make us fear what lurks on the other side — be they neighborhood thieves, or people we perceive to be our enemies.
In Jerusalem, the wall the Israeli government has erected between Jewish Israel and the Palestinian West Bank has dissuaded (and scared) Israelis from visiting their Arab neighbors, made life difficult for Palestinians who work in “Israel proper”, and created a general illusion of a tense conflict between these two proud peoples who currently share the same state. This wall, like other walls built for political reasons, is an unsightly and seemingly archaic approach to urban architecture and problem solving. The Berlin wall comes to mind, as does the wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.
But when Traverse City videographer Aaron Dennis and I crossed through Israel’s “Separation Barrier” yesterday and entered the West Bank town of Bethlehem (known, of course, for its Biblical fame), we experienced not fear but joy at the boisterous sounds of taxi cabs honking, food vendors hawking shawarmas, and hard-working Palestinians returning home to their families. For me as a world traveler, it’s always felt euphoric to depart from the solemn and ritualistic “West” and enter a culture where even strangers exhibit hospitality, handshakes and laughs toward each other.
Dennis and I are in the “Holy Land” to document the Run Across Palestine, a philanthropic venture organized by a team of northern Michiganders who will run 129 miles over five days across the West Bank. The project will raise awareness about the struggles facing olive farmers in Palestine and attempt to reestablish sustainable olive growing practices in a place where the economy, culture and identity are rooted in the ancient tree. Forty-five percent of the agricultural land in the West Bank is used for growing olives, employing 100,000 Palestinians. The money raised by the run will go to fund the replanting of olive trees uprooted in recent years, and to fund scholarships for the children of the farmers.
“The olive tree plays a very important role as a symbol of our perseverance,” said Run Across Palestine coordinator Vivien Sansour. “Planting an olive tree is a huge message of hope. When you plant an olive tree, you’re planting a vision for the future.”
In advance of the run, we’ve visited particular villages in the West Bank, including Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Omar and A’twani and talked with activists, professors, clergymen, students and olive farmers to learn about how Palestinian olive farmers are struggling to overcome the occupation and the challenges it poses to their livelihood.
In the meantime, here’s a video of students in A’tawani, a village near Hebron, dancing to traditional music and performing a skit about how they experience the occupation of their land, and their interaction with Israel’s settlement communities.
In northern Michigan, and across the United States, farming the land is our heritage. Most of us may no longer till the soil or milk the cows with our own hands, but we’re proud to have grandfathers and great grandfathers who did so, and we strive to carry on their work ethic.
Farming communities around the world boast a similar love of their land and deep connection with the food that their land harvests — just as we do in Leelanau County. The same goes for farmers who speak different languages and practice different religions and customs than we do — such as farmers in the Palestinian West Bank. They cherish and need their olive trees just as we love our cherry orchards.
That’s the message that Traverse City filmmaker Aaron Dennis and I will try to convey as we travel to Israel and Palestine next month to document the “Run Across Palestine”, a northern Michigan-organized effort to raise money and awareness around the challenges facing Palestinian fair-trade olive farmers. This is a place where the history, economy, culture and identity are rooted in the ancient olive tree. Forty-five percent of the agricultural land in the West Bank is used for growing olives, employing 100,000 Palestinians. And yet their trade is in danger as water and access to land disappear.
“The olive tree plays a very important role as a symbol of our perseverance,” said Vivien Sansour of Canaan Fair Trade and a Run Across Palestine coordinator. “Planting an olive tree is a huge message of hope. When you plant an olive tree, you’re planting a vision for the future.”
Half a dozen runners — most from northern Michigan — will run a marathon each day for five consecutive days, Feb. 4-8, from Hebron in the southern part of the West Bank to Jenin, with visits to holy sites in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Along the route they’ll stay in villages and interact with local farmers, creating a cultural exchange. Josh Davis, lead vocalist of the popular Michigan band Steppin’ In It, will join them, and record an album together with local Palestinian musicians.
The Run Across Palestine follows on the heels of last year’s Run Across Ethiopia, which featured 10 U.S. athletes running 250 miles to raise over $200,000 to build three schools in coffee-growing communities in the Yirgachefe region, where coffee was first harvested. Both runs are projects of On the Ground, the brainchild of Higher Grounds Trading owner Chris Treter, and both support fair-trade farmers.
“Olive farming is their economic livelihood,” said Timothy Young,” a board member of On the Ground and president of Food for Thought in Honor, Mich. “As a result of the political situation in this region, many have lost access to their livelihood. They came to us and told us ‘Our children will not survive if they don’t have trees to harvest’.”
“We want to make sure there will be farmers to nurture those trees 30 years from now, so we’re providing scholarships to children of these farmers to make sure they can go to school.”
The Run Across Palestine will team up with Canaan Fair Trade, the first fair-trade and organic certified olive growing cooperative in the world today.
“Fair trade puts a face on the food, and fair trade gives us access to those faces,” said Young. “We can see the people who grow our products and we can ensure that there are mechanisms in place that those people will be treated fairly.”
Dennis and I will embed ourselves with the runners, and produce a daily video series that features Palestinian olive farmers. I’ll also post daily blog updates on GlenArbor.com (just as I did during the Run Across Ethiopia), MyNorth.com and other outlets, and write a feature story for the California-based Jewish spiritual magazine, Tikkun.
The Run Across Palestine comes at a unique time, as Palestinian leaders vie for statehood recognition at the United Nations, and as democratic uprisings across the Arab Middle East give Israelis and Palestinians an opportunity to reexamine their complex relationship. In lieu of daily mainstream media coverage that exposes violence and fault lines, we intend to focus on Palestinians’ and Israelis’ common love for the agricultural land, and the food it has provided them for centuries, and how it offers the potential to unite them.
“This is not just a running expedition, and it’s not just a fundraiser,” said Treter. “At the heart of this is an opportunity for all of us to learn more about the rich culture and peaceful people that exist in Palestine, and that’s something we don’t see enough in our news.”
This GlenArbor.com story is sponsored by Misers Hoard in Empire, which recently expanded its business to include new items.
Local independent filmmaker Andrea Maio has launched a creative project called “Back to Your Senses” which will document people who take risks to do what gives them pleasure — not pleasure in the guilty sense, but pleasure in the sense of what makes us happy and fulfilled. Check out the project, and consider supporting the endeavor by clicking here.
“Back to Your Senses is an episodic series about people who take risks to do what gives them their greatest pleasure. We follow our quirky, 30 something year old hostess, who is trying to do just that, as she dives into the lives of Americans who are living their dreams, despite the desperate state of our economy. At a time when technology has trumped functional know-how, and our country is falling from it’s super power status, people are feeling uneasy. They realize they’ve relied on a system that may not have their backs, and that something needs to change. They are farmers, artists, scientists, and entrepreneurs. They are beacons for our future: leaving the safety of what they’ve known for the sake of what they love, and showing the way for those of us brave enough to do the same. From inner city Detroit, to lush Marin County, to the isolated islands of Maine, we’ll follow pioneers that have pushed past their comfort zones to strive for a true kind of sustainability; one that uses, as its fuel, the renewable pleasure of meaningful work.”
This GlenArbor.com story was sponsored by Bay Lavender, where Cookie Thatcher prefers to think of her blends of lavender soaps as “flavors”.
This coming February, Glen Arbor Sun founding editor Jacob Wheeler and Traverse City filmmaker Aaron Dennis (whose father Jerry was featured in our latest edition) will follow a team of American and Palestinian athletes as they run the West Bank, from Hebron to Jenin (129 miles over five days) to raise awareness about the struggles facing olive farmers in Palestine. The “Run Across Palestine”, a project of On The Ground aims to reestablish sustainable olive growing practices in a place where the economy, culture and identity are rooted in the ancient tree. 45 percent of the agricultural land in the West Bank is used for growing olives, employing 100,000 Palestinians. The money raised by the run will go to fund the replanting of olive trees uprooted in recent years, and to fund scholarships for the children of the farmers.
Wheeler and Dennis will produce a seven-part documentary web series entitled “The People and the Olive”, telling stories of hope and perseverance in the West Bank. These videos will be posted with accompanying blog reports and will appear on On the Ground’s website, as well as on GlenArborSun.com, on TheUpTake.org and in the progressive Jewish magazine Tikkun. After the completion of the run, these videos will be compiled and expanded into a short documentary. This film will be available on DVD and will premier in Traverse City, Michigan.
To fund their trip, Wheeler and Dennis are appealing for financial support via an online Kickstarter campaign. They aim to raise $5,000 by Jan. 24. The actual Run Across Palestine begins Feb. 4 in Hebron and ends Feb. 8 in Jenin.
“The olive tree plays a very important role as a symbol of our perseverance,” said Run Across Palestine coordinator Vivien Sansour. “Planting an olive tree is a huge message of hope. When you plant an olive tree, you’re planting a vision for the future.”
This GlenArbor.com story was sponsored by the Sylvan Inn, nestled in the tall pines at the edge of Glen Arbor.
Nine Michiganders from the Traverse City region are running across Palestine to raise awareness around issues facing West Bank olive farmers. Glen Arbor Sun editor Jacob Wheeler is with them, and submitting dispatches.
