About
Olive Branch Enterprises
Olive Branch Enterprises is the importer, producer and distributor of
Peace Oil. Owned and operated by David Sokal, Olive Branch Enterprises
has been in business since the beginning of 2006. It is currently operated
out of his home. The bottling facility is a remodeled portion of the two-car
garage and is licensed by the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
Our vision:
Peace in Israel Palestine based on grass-roots economic cooperation for
the mutual benefit of all peoples.
How to get there:
Build economic interdependence between people by creating mutually beneficial
business partnerships, providing a practical incentive for peace. Create
a model of balance and openness between parties currently in an unequal
relationship in order to lead to conditions more conducive to peaceful,
collaborative arrangements.
How to measure success:
As a for-profit, OBE’s financial success will be a measure of its
ability to build and maintain sustainable, ongoing partnerships between
Palestinians and Israelis as well as to provide a quality product to its
customers that reflects their values and aspirations.
A Tale of Two Peace Oils:
PeaceOil.NET based in Seattle is Not Affiliated
with PeaceOil.ORG based in London.
Don't confuse PeaceOil.NET with PeaceOil.ORG. Peace Oil on this website
(PeaceOil.NET) is genuine Palestinian olive oil from West Bank Palestinian
farmers and Palestinian farmers living within the green line, whereas
PeaceOil.ORG is providing a misleading description about the source of
its olive oil.
“Peace Oil,” sold in the United Kingdom by Charities
Advisory Trust, describes its product as, “produced in Israel by
Jews, Arabs, Druze and Bedouin working together.” In truth the picture is somewhat different. It is produced on an Israeli
farm owned by a Jewish farmer who hires Arab and Bedouin workers, and
presses his oil in a Druze owned press. Nothing wrong with this in and of itself … however, in a land where
historical conflict has pitted Israelis against Arabs and Bedouin, creating
a picture of collaboration is a dramatic statement. Hired workers may
be well-treated and even well-paid, but it is not exactly a relationship
of equals.
Charities Advisory Trust (CAT) has also added a line of olive oil that
it claims is from Palestinian growers in the West Bank. If the claim is
true that is good news.
When confronted by Palestinian organizations and their supporters over
the misleading nature of the description of their Peace Oil, Hilary Blume,
director of CAT, refused to acknowledge the misleading nature of the advertising
and refused to consider any form of cooperation with Zaytoun, a large
cooperative marketing genuine Palestinian olive oil in the UK.
“You can find Zaytoun in every church group in the country,"
Blume said. "If they can't market it effectively, it's their problem.”
Peace Oil.NET, based in Seattle, Washington is another story entirely.
We have been proud to reveal our suppliers from the beginning. We exist
to promote these suppliers and the good work they are doing. One of the
suppliers is Canaan
Fair Trade, also a main supplier of Zaytoun. The other two are Israeli
groups that work with Palestinian farmers. Green
Action Israel works with West Bank Palestinian farmers in small village
cooperatives in the Salfit area near Nablus. Sindyanna
of Galilee buys from Palestinian farmers living within the green line.
You may wonder how both products ended up with the same name. To the
best of our knowledge, the idea of Peace Oil was first floated in January
2005 by the Israeli and Palestinian Olive Boards. It was announced to the media at that time. Charities Advisory Trust filed
an application for registration of the term, Peace Oil, with the UK patent
office in September 2005.
Olive Branch Enterprises, the producer of Peace Oil based in Seattle,
started development of its Peace Oil in January of 2006. David Sokal,
owner/operator of Olive Branch Enterprises, did not know about the UK
Peace Oil until he came across their web site in October of 2006, about
a month after he had already begun distribution in the US. Concerned about
the use of the term “Peace Oil,” David filed an application
for registration of trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office
in November of 2006. By August of 2007, the registration with the USPTO was completed.
Peace Oil UK started distribution in the UK in November 2006. Starting
in 2007, controversy over the UK Peace Oil began to erupt. You can read
about this subject on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_oil.
Note the mention of the US Peace Oil in the second paragraph under the
subheading “Criticism:” The following quote is from that paragraph:
“According to supporters, ‘Unlike the London version, it
[US Peace Oil] is mostly olive oil from the West Bank where economic
assistance is most needed’.”
Footnotes:
http://www.peaceoil.org/ www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/
… ethicalshopping: “Peace Oil is produced …
in Israel, on 400 acres of land farmed by Amos Strauss, a Jewish farmer.
He has four staff (18 in the high season), all of whom are Arab or Bedouin
… The olives are pressed at a Druze press owned by a local sheikh.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/dec/07/israel#history-byline http://www.foodprocessing.com/industrynews/2005/183.html http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/t-find/t-find-text/ (enter the words "Peace" and "Oil" in the text search
fields) http://www.uspto.gov/web/trademarks/workflow/start.htm (Click on "TESS" in the 4th paragraph, select "New User
Form Search (Basic)", enter the phrase "Peace Oil" in the
Search Term field.)
Printed Resources
Lists of Stores Carrying Peace Oil
Download
List of Stores (PDF) |
