24. Issa Musleh  and family coordinate the sales of olive wood for 23 family groups in Beit Sahour, the traditional shepherds’ fields area near Bethlehem. Their management enables the producers to maintain highest quality and receive fair prices for their work and the group work in a cooperative spirit.  All of the Bethlehem area is being cut off by the Separation Wall and Har Homa settlement is ‘a stone’s throw’ away.  Olive wood must be dried for a year before using for carving. Whereas traditionally the wood came from prunings of the trees, and no trees were destroyed to make the crafts, the situation today sadly is that settlers take the trees after they have been uprooted for new roads or settlements (“security”) and sell the wood back to Palestinians at high prices.  Sales to tourists are only now beginning to pick up in Bethlehem.  Hadeel is one of the few customers who pay for goods right away, enabling the work to go on.

Photos are of  craftsman and showroom