In 2011, the Near East Foundation (NEF) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched a ground-breaking economic development project. Olive Oil Without Borders is an idea that brought mutual understanding and increases in financial livelihoods to both sides of a decades-long conflict through the development of the Israeli and Palestinian olive oil sectors.
Bringing together farmers, millers, traders, and intermediaries from Israel and the West Bank, Olive Oil Without Borders also sought to increase olive oil quality and quantity by facilitating the sharing the strongest of each side’s technologies and techniques. Today, the partnerships between the people who work the land continue and the goodwill created is as strong as olive trees themselves.