Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel
The WCC’s Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), based on an appeal from local church leaders to create an international presence in the country, accompanies the local people and communities, offering protective presence and witnessing their daily struggles and hopes.
The World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (WCC EAPPI) was created in 2002 by the WCC in response to a letter and an appeal from local church leaders to create an international presence in the country.
EAPPI provides a continuous presence of 25-30 Ecumenical Accompaniers, who serve in the field for three months, accompanying local people and communities, offering a protective presence, and witnessing their daily struggles and hopes. EAPPI is guided by “principled impartiality”: it takes no side in the conflict nor discriminates against anyone, but it is not neutral in terms of human rights and respect for international humanitarian law.
The accompaniers come from 21 countries worldwide and are supported by a staff team in Jerusalem. A Local Reference Group representing communities and churches who have asked for and are benefitting from the programme helps to guide the programme, along with the WCC team in Geneva and national coordinators in the sending countries.
More than 2000 Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs) have served through the programme, and many of them have stayed involved and interested in working toward a just peace in Palestine and Israel.
We invite people and churches all over the world to pray, advocate, and stand in solidarity with people in the Holy Land during the World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel, to be observed on 16-23 September 2023.
H2 is the name given to the eastern part of Hebron City, the only Palestinian city center which remains under full Israeli military control in the West Bank.
Approximately 56,908 Palestinians reside in the Jordan Valley, while approximately 11,000 Israelis settlers are living in the area. Today, Palestinian Indigenous residents of the Jordan Valley are the subject of violence and exploitation by settlers and Israeli security forces with the intention to take over more land.
Between the period of the 13th of September 1993 (when the Oslo Agreement was signed) and the 31st of December 2022: Israel demolished 2787 structures in East Jerusalem including 213 donor-funded structures, and it displaced 5093 persons including 2582 children. These included homes; Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) facilities; and agricultural structures.
