As we move into 2026, we do so with clarity rather than illusion. The past year was marked by escalating state violence, intensifying settler attacks, forced displacement, and deepening political fragmentation. For many human rights defenders, 2025 was a year of growing isolation.

But it was also a year defined by presence. In a moment when disengagement would have been easier, solidarity became not a slogan, but a strategy grounded in continuity and shared responsibility.

With your support, Green Olive expanded into a stronger global network committed to sustained engagement alongside Palestinian communities and Israeli partners working toward equality and a democratic future beyond occupation.

Reclaiming Land as an Act of Resistance

That solidarity took concrete form on the land. Across the West Bank, we coordinated more than a dozen agricultural initiatives in 2025. Thousands of olive trees destroyed in settler attacks were replanted, honey bee farms were rehabilitated, and lands threatened with expropriation in the Jordan Valley, Nablus District, Qalqilya Governorate, and Masafer Yatta were cultivated.

Here, agriculture is not merely livelihood. It is territorial continuity, historical memory, and a refusal to surrender land through abandonment. When internationals plant trees alongside local farmers, they participate in a quiet but deeply political act: asserting presence in places where fragmentation is systematically imposed.

Bearing Witness in an Era of Narrative Control

Presence extended beyond the fields. Hundreds of participants joined our tours and solidarity missions, not as spectators, but as engaged learners willing to witness, listen, and contextualize what they encountered. They met Palestinian and Israeli communities navigating daily realities shaped by occupation, siege, and structural inequality.

Participants walked through refugee camps, stood across from the Wall, listened to families facing demolition orders in Area C, and engaged civil society leaders working under mounting political pressure. These were not curated encounters but direct engagements with communities living in prolonged instability.

In an era shaped by polarized narratives and media distortion, bearing witness becomes accountability. It transforms abstraction into tangible encounter and challenges the normalization of erasure. Our solidarity missions and tours are not neutral travel experiences. They are educational interventions in a global landscape where lived realities are too often obscured.

Culture Beyond Catastrophe

Solidarity is incomplete if it only recognizes catastrophe. Throughout 2025, participants encountered the depth and diversity of Palestinian life, creativity, continuity, and cultural resilience. They shared knafeh in Nablus after visiting Balata Refugee Camp, met artists near Bethlehem transforming remnants of rubber bullets and stun grenades into handcrafted jewelry, and explored Ramallah’s cultural spaces where political discourse and artistic expression are bound together.

They joined the olive harvest and honored the legacy of lifelong civil resistors in the South Hebron Hills, witnessing how memory and resistance intertwine. These moments resist simplified narratives and foreground dignity alongside struggle.

The Political Context: Deepening Division, Growing Isolation

The broader political landscape remains stark. Communities on both sides of the Green Line face profound instability, progressive civil institutions operate under increasing scrutiny, and the distance between societies has widened. Many justice workers describe a growing sense of abandonment as international attention fluctuates.

In this environment, disengagement does not produce neutrality — it produces silence. Sustained solidarity functions as a counterweight to isolation. It strengthens networks between grassroots actors and global communities, amplifies local voices, and interrupts the normalization of dispossession. This is not charity; it is structural engagement.

Looking Forward: Commitment in 2026

As we move into 2026, our missions in March, May, and October aim to deepen informed engagement and expand a global community rooted in human rights. Our growing network enables us to strengthen partnerships with communities facing displacement in Area C and sustain advocacy efforts that resist fragmentation and erasure.

Solidarity is not episodic. It is a long-term practice built through presence and persistence, and in a time defined by attempts to fragment and silence, presence itself remains a powerful act.

If 2025 was a year of standing firm under pressure, 2026 must be a year of sustained commitment.

Join Our Tours to Bear Witness and Refuse Silence in 2026!

Join us on the ground to meet firsthand, form relationships, and build solidarity with communities throughout the West Bank, including Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Masafer Yatta: