WHERE AND WHEN: The tree planting will take place on Friday, January 31, 1999, on the "Green Line" near the town of Tulkarm.

* Transportation FROM JERSALEM will leave from the parking lot of Gan HaPa'amon (Liberty Bell Park), next to the gas station, at 8:30 AM. For further information, call Arik Ascherman (050-607034).

* Transportation FROM TEL AVIV will leave from the El Al Masof (Terminal) by the North Railway Station (Takhanat HaRakevet Tzafon), at 9 AM. For further information, call Amos Gvirtz or Harriet Lewis (09-952-3261) or Yaakov Manor (050-733276).

For those travelling from other parts of the country or coming on their own, we will meet at the Beit Lid junction at 9:45. We will return by 2-2:30 in the afternoon.

BACKGROUND: Our tree-planting action is in response to the uprooting in recent months of thousands of olive and other fruit trees belonging to West Bank farmers, mainly by Israeli settlers attempting to harass and intimidate them or by the Israeli Civilian Administration clearing land for settlement expansion and by-pass roads. Between 1987-1997 some 250,000 trees have been uprooted - more than 30,000 in the past year alone - striking at the very core of the Palestinian economy and the livelihood of thousands of families. The tree-planting also marks the conjunction of the Jewish festival of Tu B'Shvat with Id el-Sejura, the Palestinian national Arbor Day.

We hope to see you on Friday.

In Peace,