Protecting Palestinian Land: Farming Under Occupation
What does it mean to farm under occupation? In this episode of Siti’s Stories, I sit down with Lana Mustafa the Executive Director of Montclair Community Farms and founder of Roots of Resilience. Lana’s work directly supports Palestinian farmers the very people on the front lines of occupation. We talk about how land, seeds, water, and agriculture in Palestine are used of tools of control. From cutting off water access, restricting crops like za’atar, flooding markets to create dependen...
What does it mean to farm under occupation?
In this episode of Siti’s Stories, I sit down with Lana Mustafa the Executive Director of Montclair Community Farms and founder of Roots of Resilience.
Lana’s work directly supports Palestinian farmers the very people on the front lines of occupation. We talk about how land, seeds, water, and agriculture in Palestine are used of tools of control.
From cutting off water access, restricting crops like za’atar, flooding markets to create dependency, and targeting farmers’ livelihoods; Palestinian agriculture is intentionally disrupted.
And yet farmers (fallahin) endure.
We speak about seed saving as resistance. About food sovereignty in Palestine. About growing Palestinian seeds in the diaspora. And about how village farmers are the ones quietly holding down culture, identity, and tradition.
This conversation is layered and deeply personal.
Lana shares:
• Growing up in a fallahi farming village in Palestine
• Starting Roots of Resilience in 2024 to financially and physically support Palestinian farmers
• Leaving an abusive marriage, becoming a single mom of three, and how reconnecting to the land grounded her and gave her a new beginning
• Our shared invisible illnesses and how stress, grief, and genocide impact our bodies
• Why taking tangible action and creating change can be a path toward healing
We also talk about the funniest small-world Palestinian moment, how Lana once met my grandmother because of her thobe… and how we’re speaking about it years later. SubhanAllah.
This episode is honest, vulnerable, informative, and hopeful. It’s about Palestinian land, Palestinian farmers, food sovereignty, and the women who carry forward what was planted before them.
Grow your own with https://www.palestineheirloomseedlibrary.com/
🌿 Connect with Lana: @this_bee_lana and @roots_of_resilience_
🌿Follow us at @sitis.stories and visit sitisstories.com
Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream.
