The Pulitzer Prize for Non-Journalism

I knew this story sounded familiar - Palestine's Budding Fair Trade Olive Oil Industry - about the Canaan Fair Trade. 

I mentioned it over two years ago.  And in passing briefly earlier this year.

But why is it a sponsored project subject of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

This section is amazing:

Today, Canaan is the largest supplier of fair trade olive oil in the world. 

“The whole idea of bringing the farmers into the modern economy is that it brings international awareness to the struggles that Palestinian farmers [experience],” Abufarha said.

Even in the portion of the West Bank over which the Palestinian Authority (PA) allegedly maintains civil and military control, and where the majority of Canaan’s 49 current cooperatives exist, water management projects proposed by the PA must first, under article 40 of the 1995 Oslo Peace agreement, be approved by Israeli authorities. 

Since few proposed Palestinian water resource systems have received permits from the Israeli authorities, the number of Palestinian wells in the West Bank has declined from 774 in 1967 to 328 in 2005. Many farmers must rely on un-permitted wells to irrigate their crops. Samara, for instance, provides 30 different farming families with water from his un-permitted well. He says every day he fears it will be demolished. 

I would suggest that the entity most responsible for this -  bringing the farmers into the modern economy - is actually Israel.

As for those wells, the subject has been dealt with in depth (sorry for the pun).  Try this (the short version).  The 42-page version.  A news story.  there is more but I doubt the reporter reviewed that.

The above "reporting" is reflective of propaganda, not journalism.

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