Help us mobilize on the ground

Palestine is dotted with remote, hard-to-reach communities that can only be reached with off-road vehicles. Help us to secure a 4×4 truck to haul activists, tools, and olive trees to some of the most vulnerable and marginalized communities. 


Stand in solidarity
Every year, Israeli settlers destroy thousands of trees. Your investment into suitable transportation helps keep the GSC and other activists on the ground in these at-risk communities.

Support GSC in isolated communities

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Our Olive Trees

For Palestinians, the olive tree carries a message of hope and sumud. When we look to the olive tree, we are reminded of our history in this land and how Palestinian people can survive anything. For many small Palestinian villages the olive tree is very important in the community. A lot of families rely on the olive tree to take care of them for the entire year, gathering enough olive oil and collecting enough olives until the following season. Your willingness to stand in solidarity with these small Palestinian communities gives many families hope. Join us in this important act of resistance and help us plant olive trees for the future. Help us plant 500 olive trees this fall. Make a donation to this crucial work.

Olive trees, land, and labor


Every year, the annual olive harvest takes place between October and November. There are more than 10 million olive trees cultivated across around 86,000 hectares of land in the West Bank, representing almost half–47 percent–of cultivated agricultural land. Between 80,000 and 100,000 families rely on olives and the production of olive oil for their primary or secondary source of income, and more than 15 percent of working women are employed in olive agriculture, as well as large numbers of unskilled laborers. In 2019, it was estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization that the total olive oil yield for the West Bank was 27,000 tons.

Our lands are under attack

In recent years, settler attacks on agricultural lands across the West Bank have seen a rise–between January and October of 2019, OCHA recorded a monthly average of 27 attacks, whereas in 2018 there were an average of 25 monthly attacks, an average of 14 monthly attacks in 2017, and an average of 8 in 2016. These attacks result in Palestinian casualties–physical injuries, attacks, harassment by the Israeli police or military sometimes resulting in arrests and certainly stolen time–as well as damage to property.

Between January and October of 2019, the incidents reported resulted in the damage of over 6,200 trees, of which most were olive trees. Almost half of these were located in the Nablus governorate.

During the olive harvest in October 2019, OCHA partners recorded a total of 26 incidents of Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian farmers, their trees, or their products. This is an increase from 19 recorded incidents in 2018 and 20 in 2017 during the olive harvest period.

Ensuring Palestinians continue to plant olives is one important way that the international community can stand in solidarity with the Palestinian villages under threat. Consider making a donation of $25 dollars or more to gift these communities a brighter tomorrow.

Our work on the ground

How the Good Shepherd Collective is building a movement of solidarity

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