News
By Royal Orr
Cf. Press update 02-25 of August 26
This is the first story in a three-part series on the accompaniment programme.
The first official participants in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) arrived in Jerusalem on 18 August, 2002.
Ranging in age from 23 to 67 and coming from a variety of backgrounds, 12 ecumenical accompaniers from Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Norway had already undergone a week of intensive preparation in Copenhagen. Another full week of training was held in Israel and Palestine.
The accompaniers are now working with local organizations at a number of tasks, including human rights monitoring, advocacy, and supporting non-violent resistance by churches, church-related organizations and Palestinian and Israeli peace groups.
During their local training, the accompaniers visited several sites. Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions took them on a guided tour of East Jerusalem that was both eye opening and disturbing.
"It is almost unbelievable to see how the Israeli authorities are pushing Palestinians out of their own city," commented Sune from Denmark.
The EAPPI team also visited the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) in Hebron. The CPT has been a source of inspiration for the EAPPI. Musa Abu Hashhash, the Hebron fieldworker for the Israeli human rights group B'tselem, then took the accompaniers into the Israeli settler areas in Hebron.
"We were shouted at by a settler woman who called us trespassers and Nazis," said Sarah. "But another settler carrying an assault rifle was worse. He insisted that nearby soldiers stop us to check our papers. He said that one of us looked like a Palestinian. The soldiers did what the settler asked."
The accompaniers visited an Israeli military checkpoint on the highway from Jerusalem to Ramallah, and attempted to ease the passage of an ambulance that was stalled by soldiers with patients inside.
Workshops on report-writing, media relations and security were held at the team's operational base at the Lutheran World Federation's Augusta Victoria Hospital. Time was also reserved for meetings with local church leaders, who are providing essential support to EAPPI.
After two weeks of training in Copenhagen and Jerusalem, the ecumenical accompaniers were eager to get settled with their host organizations, and begin making their own small contribution to realizing a dream of peace for Palestine and Israel.
EAPPI is an ecumenical programme of the World Council of Churches.
For more information on the programme, reports from the accompaniers, and photos, see:
wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/palestine/eap.html
Royal Orr is a senior consultant with Columbia Communications in Canada and president of the video production company N.E.X.T. Productions. He is also the host of The United Church of Canada's national religious affairs programme, Spirit Connection. He was in Jerusalem in August 2002 to assist the local EAPPI orientation.