JENNY JACOBY
A Palestinian farmer in the West Bank town of Nablus harvests olives. While Palestinian farmers living in the West Bank welcome the olive harvest season with joy, in some areas the joy gives way to anxiety due to the threat of attacks by Jewish settlers or soldiers. (PHOTO COURTESY AL’ARD)
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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, October 2023, pp. 31-33
Special Report
By Jenny Jacoby
FOR PALESTINIANS, land is the essence of their existence. It underpins their primary industry and has been at the heart of their struggles during the 75-year Israeli oppression. Land represents not only a means of sustenance but also a symbol of identity, heritage and the hopes of millions.
The double significance of land, as both the backbone and the center of the Palestinian cause, is reflected in the fittingly named Al’Ard Palestinian Agri-Products Ltd. Founded 15 years ago, the family-owned company acts as an anchor firm for Palestinian farmers to unify their products under a brand that can be exported to the world. But their mission has always been about both the social impacts and the profit margins.
In 2000 Ziad Anabtawi, CEO of the Anabtawi Group (originally a distributor for international foods and consumer goods), was asked what he was doing for the Palestinian economy. A prominent importer of other country’s goods, Ziad thought about the question and concluded that he was not doing enough to uplift the products of his own people. “I thought, let’s try to do it the other way around.”
Around the same time there was a surplus of unsold olive oil in Palestine that led farmers to reach out to private companies for assistance in marketing and distribution. Seeing his opportunity to make a difference, Ziad took his years of experience and directed it to a new project: Al’Ard, meaning the earth or the land in Arabic.
“It reflects our deep bond with the Palestinian land and its agricultural heritage. The name symbolizes our commitment to preserving Palestinian tradition, culture, and sustainable agriculture,” Subhi Anabtawi, the deputy general manager of Al’Ard and son of Ziad, told the Washington Report.
At the core of the company is the family: Ziad and his children, Subhi; Hani, head of Supply Chain; and Qamar, sales and marketing coordinator. “We’re the face of it, and we look after what we are doing,” Qamar said. “We all have the same goal: the success of the company and its social impact.” Together, they have overseen the company’s growth to become the top exporter of Palestinian olive oil, an important product for the family and the nation.
An agrarian society with olive trees at its heart, Palestine’s land and olives have always held meaning beyond their commercial value. Proverbs equate land with people’s honor and many believe that olive oil holds healing power. “It’s knitted into the fabric of society and culture and folklore,” Ida Audeh, a Palestinian whose family has 20 olive trees, told the Washington Report. She and her siblings plan their visits to Palestine from the United States to coincide with the olive harvest. “I can’t imagine Palestine without olive trees. It seems inconceivable to me.”
Al’Ard is working to help save this 8,000-year-old industry, defining its mission as a social investment in Palestinian people and the land, rather than as a competitive business. “We, as a company, will not invest in agriculture, so we will not be competing with the farmers,” Subhi said. “The whole focus is to build the capabilities of the farmers we want to work with and facilitate market opportunities to showcase the incredible products that Palestine has to offer to the world.”
The company, in essence, “connects the supply chain.” They invest and buy raw materials from local farmers where it is transported to the headquarters in Nablus to be tested for quality, and either stored or bottled for shipment. The packaged products, varying from soap to oil, are then sent out to distribution hubs either within Palestine or abroad.
An important step in advancing the quality of the products to meet Al’Ard standards is integrating technology in a way that does not threaten the farming practices passed down for generations—as Subhi puts it, “to modernize their production practices while preserving their heritage.” This includes teaching sustainable techniques that preserve the fertility of the soil and the strategic use of water, as climate concerns threaten the region.
Al’Ard actively works to safeguard traditions endangered by Israeli oppression that directly imposes harsh restrictions on Palestinian businesses. “It comes with the package,” Ziad remarked. Operating from Nablus, the company constantly manages crises. Israeli checkpoints surrounding the city and unexpected military operations can abruptly interrupt the supply chain, especially in recent months with Nablus under siege.
The issues are amplified when shipping abroad. In order to be moved across the border, all shipping pallets must pass through Israeli scanners, significantly smaller in size than traditional pallets. This forces the company to break the containers down prior to shipment and pay a company on the other side of the border to reassemble them. The scanners also prevent them from filling the containers completely, drastically decreasing the amount of movable product as compared to other companies. About 40 percent of buyers are domestic, leaving the other 60 percent subject to international constraints and higher costs.
The Israeli army fires tear gas at Palestinian farmers near the outpost of Evitar while they are picking olives in the village of Beita, south of Nablus in the West Bank on Oct. 15, 2021. (NASSER ISHTAYEH/SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES)
The everyday impediments can make business unpredictable, but at some point the state of anxiety Al’Ard operates under becomes commonplace, Subhi explained. “If you were raised or you live in a harsh environment, the harsh living is normal for you,” he said. “We got used to having hardships; the challenges have become a motivator for us.”
The emotional weight of the occupation poses a different kind of obstacle, one that has required the Anabtawis to be friends with their coworkers. To Qamar, the employees are a second family she cares deeply about. She does her best to bring them her positive attitude on hard days. “I just try to listen,” she said. “I tell them, no matter what, I’ll be by your side.”
Many of the employees live in refugee camps that are under threat of raids by the Israeli army or are weighed down by having loved ones in prison. One of Hani’s best employees suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, and on days when he is feeling stressed, does not come to work. Seeing people tired or emotionally exhausted is normal. “You have to be gentle, but firm. You worry about their safety, but at the same time if they do not show up to work today, at the end of the month they may not have food on the table,” Hani said.
The family also is not exempt from the toll of living in Palestine. “I wake up in the morning and I get a call and it’s like, oh, the army’s here, don’t go to work right now,” Qamar said. Qamar and Hani explain it would be easier for them to not show up for work some days, but they know they are working for something greater. “We all have to support one another because this is also part of the game, which is working and benefiting the farmers and the agriculture,” Qamar said. “Here, we get to protect our culture through a different approach.”
As part of this fight, the company has launched the Palestinian Fertile Land Alliance, a nonprofit organization that works to unite farmers, producers and manufacturers to promote ethical agricultural practices and facilitate market access. A personal project of Subhi’s, PFLA provides farmers with essential tools and international certification. The alliance also launched its own initiative in Canada, the Trees for Palestine Project, that takes charitable donations to buy native olive trees and strategically plant them in Palestine. Both provide stability and longevity to the company, while empowering farmers who continue to harvest despite the threats of Israeli army and settlers.
These projects are based on the belief that to be successful in Palestinian business, the company must inherently be tied to the Palestinian cause. “Al’Ard shows that we’re firm on our land, we’re standing here, we’re staying here,” Subhi said. They do not expect their work to free Palestine, but they do believe it gives Palestinians something to hold onto. “It is preservation and determination that plants hope in their hearts for later on.”
For Palestinians abroad, products like Al’Ard are a “lifeline.” Images of olive trees being ripped out of the ground or “beheaded” in settler attacks appear frequently in the news, with an estimated 800,000 uprooted since 1967. For people coming from an agrarian culture, “That really hits you in the gut,” Audeh said. To see olive oil successfully harvested and sold in international markets gives a sense of hope and connection to a homeland many have had to flee.
Messages of support from international customers are a large part of what keeps the family committed to the company. Customers have written to tell them that tasting their zaatar seasoning reminds them of meals back home with their grandmothers. For Ziad, though, what really makes the business worth it is the everlasting aspiration for a better future. “This makes life easier for a group of people who are working with me, and it’s generating an income for them so they can live and they can stay on their land,” Ziad said.
Jenny Jacoby was an intern from the 2023 National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations’ Washington, DC Summer Internship Program. She contributed numerous articles during her 10-week program as a Washington Report Helen Thomas summer intern. Jacoby is editor-in-chief of The Miami Hurricane and a Singer Scholar at the University of Miami, FL
This Story was originally published by Washington Report on Affairs Middle East (WRME.org)