IN STEREO

Beit Jala [Olive Oil Press] Cooperative was one of the three oldest cooperatives in Palestine. The other ones closed, [but this one] still exists today. There were no homes [in] these areas [or just] a few – there were olive farms. There were five or six small stone presses, those that are pulled by camels or horses. When you needed to press olives, you needed a month, a month and a half until your turn to press came. So when the farmer needed to collect olives, they stored them and they rotted and they smelled. And acidification increased. You know, the Arabic proverb says, ‘from the tree to the stone’. You have to preserve medical and nutritional value. Oil must be extra virgin and virgin. Now, at that time, they started to press at Ain Siniya. In Ain Siniya, near Ramallah, there’s a modern press.

Farmers started to take the olives [there because] you know, if they remained for a month, they’d rot. From Beit Jala, Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, they started to go, because it was faster and better, more modern. They started carrying them with tractors. This was in ‘62. You know, the way was long fifty years ago – it wasn’t like today. Now, [the founders] took the idea that why don’t we create a cooperative in the area to serve all the governorates of Bethlehem? Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, the eastern countryside, the western countryside, even the outskirts of Jerusalem started coming here. They helped farmers’ travel hardships. First, we served the farmer, we helped them. And they preserved the oil’s quality and value in a more modern way. So this was the idea, then. This cooperative serves the farmers. – Basher