Twinning Project: Palestine Local Seed Bank
There is no National Sovereignty without Seed Sovereignty’
- Fuad AbuSaif, Director, Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), Palestine
Currently, Israel has banned seeds from entering Gaza, making it impossible for people to grow food and feed themselves.
Background to Twinning Project
Exeter Seed Bank is a member of the Land Workers’ Alliance (LWA), a union of farmers and land-based workers with the mission to improve their livelihoods and create a better and fairer food and land-use system worldwide.
We are taking part in an LWA project twinning farms in the UK with farms in Palestine. As a seed bank, we are twinned with the Palestine Local Seed Bank. Our aim is to cultivate long-term solidarity with Palestine Local Seed Bank and develop strategies of support.
The Palestine Local Seed Bank is a professional centre of seed preservation established in 2009. It is part of UAWC (Union of Agricultural Work Committees). Like the LWA, this body is a member of La Via Campesina, an international food sovereignty movement founded in 1993. The Palestine Local Seed Bank is based in the West Bank. It has collections of Palestinian heritage seeds stored in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which holds the world’ seed diversity.
The Palestine Local Seed Bank was established in response to the disappearance of pure, locally adapted seed stocks used by generations of Palestinian farmers and families. It assists farmers while protecting local agricultural biodiversity across the occupied Palestinian territories, preserving their seed sovereignty amidst the occupation.
What we are doing
We have regular communication online with our friends at the Palestine Local Seed Bank to develop ways of working together. As the situation in West Bank deteriorates, we are deeply concerned for their safety and the continuation of their vital work.
In Exeter, we have held workshops with our local multigenerational Palestinian community and friends. We’ve come together to make clay pots, talk, tell stories, and share food. Some people call this way of working ‘craftivism’.
We will continue to hold workshops making pots which we will offer with seeds of favourite Palestinian plants, and these are available for a donation £3 per pot and seeds.
Other activities are planned and we welcome other UK seed banks to get involved in. Please email us for further information.
For more information on the current situation of farmers in Palestine please see: