“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.”[1] 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.[2] 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.”[3]

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.[4] 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[5].

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.[6] 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:

[1] http://www.peaceoil.org/

[2] 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.”

[3] http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/
dec/07/israel#history-byline

[4] http://www.foodprocessing.com/
industrynews/2005/183.html

[5] http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/t-find/
t-find-text/ (enter the words "Peace" and "Oil" in the text search fields)

[6] 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.)

Your purchase of Peace Oil — fair trade Palestinian olive oil — supports a just and lasting peace in Israel and Palestine.