“I eat to live,” says one; “I live to eat,” says another. What they are both saying is that food is life’s great connector. It connects us to the earth and to each other; human life is essentially about connection. That is the inspiration and message of a project called Zatoun which brings fair trade olive oil from Palestine. Zatoun is the Arabic word for olive.
The initiative was founded in 2004 to connect Canadians with Palestinians in a dimension of culture, of feeling, of realness which is absent from the usual barrage of words and images. Think of Zatoun as their voice telling their story. The olive is the ideal carrier for the message as it is the universal symbol of peace, warmth, light, divinity; and it represents the land of Palestine just as the western red cedar does British Columbia.
Zatoun’s olive oil is certified fair trade and organic, sourced from the Palestine Fair Trade Association (PFTA), comprised of 1,700 small-scale farmers. Each year the project contributes over $240,000 to Palestinian livelihoods.
By supporting Zatoun you are also connected to a project called Trees for Life — Planting Peace in Palestine. Using proceeds from sales, they have planted over 40,000 olive tree saplings in the West Bank on farms that have had trees destroyed by Israeli settlers or the military, and on women-led farms where husbands have been maimed, killed or imprisoned. Additionally, $220,000 from sales has been used to fund “art as therapy” such as painting, drawing, dance and acting to help relieve the trauma of childhoods stolen by military occupation.
Zatoun is a not-for-profit and has not increased prices in 10 years in order to keep it affordable and accessible. Consider giving olive oil instead of wine as a gift for dinner or house warming.
Robert Massoud is a Palestinian-Canadian activist from a business background living in Toronto.