Olive Tree Campaign

The Good Shepherd Collective (GSC) is a group of individuals working on the ground to organize coalitions of change across Palestine. GSC focuses on structural oppression that creates violence, working both on the ground in communities and with our international partners to usher in a new era of justice. Our organization is centered in the South Hebron Hills, but works across all of Historical Palestine. 

Over the last year, GSC has addressed the effects of the pandemic on our work by building up our olive tree project, which works to secure Palestinian lands against land takeovers by Israeli settlers by tending to the land and planting olive trees. Since 1948 Israel has destroyed over 1 million Palestinian olive trees and Israeli settlers destroy on average 4,000 as a means to drive the families off their lands. Over the last year, we have planted dozens of olive trees from the South Hebron Hills to East Jerusalem, and have assisted local landowners across the West Bank with the olive harvest — even facing attacks by Israeli settlers while harvesting olives. Standing in solidarity with these marginalized communities is crucial. 

This Ramadan, we are asking our friends, family, and allies in justice to help us raise the money to buy a small truck for the organization. Many of the communities we work with are smaller communities, located in remote regions of Area C of the West Bank, and it is often difficult to access them without vehicles more suited to rough terrain — because of unjust laws that do not allow these communities to build their own roads. With a small truck, we will not only be able to reach these spaces with ease and greater frequency, but be able to bring activists, trees, tools, and other resources with us to these spaces. Make a contribution for justice today.

Find out more about our work at https://goodshepherdcollective.org