First, the good news: As of this writing, the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project’s annual olive tree planting campaign has raised enough to plant at least 350 olive trees in the Madison-Masafer Yatta Grove. Thanks to all those who donated!
Then, the not-so-good news: We are still 50 trees short of our 2025 goal of 400 trees. Please help us meet our goal.
For the past three years, MRSCP and Palestine Partners have worked with the Dutch organization Plant an Olive Tree (Plant een Olijfbloom) to sustain groves of olive trees and replace those lost to Israeli violence in the Masafer Yatta area of the West Bank, where Palestinian families have planted and cultivated olive groves for generations.
These families — along with many others in the West Bank — are facing a continuously escalating campaign of violence and land theft. Israeli settlers and soldiers have burned, slashed, bulldozed and uprooted thousands of olive trees in the region. See for example this just-released report on the uprooting of 8,000 olive in trees in only one week.
This is being done in order to pave the way for more and more illegal settlements. Just last week, Israel approved 19 new ones, including one in the Masafer-Yatta area.
The planting of olive trees can help protect Palestinian-owned land from dispossession, by making it harder for Israel to seize it for being “uncultivated”. This is why we created the Madison-Masafer Yatta Grove, making trees available to the Palestinian farmers and landowners most at risk in the Masafer Yatta region.
Sponsoring an olive tree is a practical act of solidarity with these families, and a hopeful act for the planet. You also have the option to sponsor a tree in the name of a loved one, as either a celebration of life or a gift that keeps on giving.
The end of this year is the deadline for the next batch of trees, which must be planted between January and March. Each tree costs 20 euros, or about $24 US dollars.
Please help us reach our goal of 400 trees by sponsoring a tree (or trees) in the Madison-Masafer Yatta grove.
At this point, the best way to sponsor for 2025 is ONLINE. Click here (or copy and pastehttps://tiny.one/MadisonOliveGrove
into your browser) and follow the directions; be sure to indicate if you would like a printable certificate sent to you by email. This QR code will also take you to that same page:
If you really prefer to send a check, make it payable to Palestine Partners marked “trees” and mail to:
Madison-Rafah Sister City Project
P.O. Box 5214
Madison, WI 53705
Be sure to include your name, mailing address, and email and indicate if you would like the printable certificate and/or a lovely card to send to someone in whose name you are donating a tree. NOTE: Checks received too late for the 2026 planting season will be applied to next fall’s campaign.
As always, thanks for helping keep hope alive in these darkest of times.
Sincerely,
Barb Olson, Coordinator
MRSCP
A special message from Cassandra Dixon:
Over the 20 years I’ve been visiting these villages I’ve seen hundreds of trees bulldozed by the military and slashed and burned by settlers, and I’ve watched and helped people replant many many more. It’s a vital way of keeping land, and in this time of unprecedented violence it remains a solid act of solidarity from afar. I’m beyond grateful for every tree sponsored.
Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement 
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