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Farming and Beekeeping in Palestine: Stories from the West Bank and Gaza
Farming and Beekeeping in Palestine: Stories from the West Bank and Gaza a talk by Hana’ Maaiah, atalanta, and Hany Eidiwany on Saturday, June 6, 2026
On Saturday, June 6 at 3pm farmers Hana’ Maaiah, atalanta, and Hany Eidiwany will speak at the Hudson Area Library about the history and current conditions for Palestinian farmers. Hana’ is a Palestinian-Jordanian nomadic farmer, beekeeper, and educator who recently returned from working with farmers in the West Bank. Berkshire County farmer atalanta was in the West Bank last April and works closely with farmers in Gaza. Hany is a beekeeper and dairy goat farmer in the Catskills. The Hudson Area Library is located at 51 N. Fifth St, Hudson, NY. This program is presented by Columbia County for Palestine. Admission is free with donations welcome.
Hana’ will share stories about the Palestinian beekeepers and farmers she works with in Beitlehem, Jenin, Tulkarem, Ramallah, Anabta, Battir, Al Khalil, and virtually in Gaza. Hana' says that working with farmers in Palestine reminds her how to be human, be in community, and be on land in ways that Western culture has erased. She has been farming for a decade and is currently the co-Farm Manager and the Farm Education & Programs Manager at Soul Fire Farm in Petersburg, NY.
atalanta will share stories about working with Arduna, a food sovereignty initiative run by a collective of Gazan farmers, who continue planting their land despite all that they continue to face. Arduna is the legacy project of the farmer Yousef Abu Rabee, who was martyred after he broke the siege of starvation on North Gaza by replanting the north in 2024. A community organizer and farmer, atalanta does land-based liberation work as a member of Finca Luna Búho and collaborative director of Seedling Solidarity, a food sovereignty project in Berkshire County. They are part of Roots of Resilience that does mutual aid support with farmers in the West Bank. And with great honor, they run and tend Arduna alongside the Gazan farmer collective.
Hany will share some of the history of Palestine’s pre-1948 agriculture and ecological biodiversity. Growing up learning to milk cows and goats on his family’s farm in Egypt, Hany now has a homestead in Upstate New York that includes an apiary, chickens, and dairy goats where he and his wife focus on regenerative farming practices. He has a deep appreciation for the knowledge and resilience of Palestinian farmers whose relationship to the land is rooted in generations of stewardship and cultural continuity.
Israeli soldiers and settlers continue to use violence to force Palestinian farmers off their land and out of their homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where Palestinians live under Israeli military terror. Palestinian farmers, everywhere they live, struggle to cultivate their land under a discriminatory Israeli system of apartheid that denies them, as one example, equal access to water.
This event is co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace – Albany (JVP-Albany), Jewish Voice for Peace – Hudson Valley (JVP-HV), New Paltz Women in Black (NP WIB), and Middle East Crisis Response (MECR). Columbia County for Palestine (CC4P) is a group of Columbia County, NY area residents committed to the cause of a Free Palestine. For more information email [email protected].
