World Council of Churches - Feature
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For immediate release: 26 February 2004


Israelis committed to peace and human rights


By Neil Cavers*
Free photos available – see below.
From helping people in need to get through checkpoints to assisting villagers to resist settlers' harassment, Israeli peace and human rights activists are committed to getting relief to Palestinians at the same time as they contribute to enabling the birth of a lasting peace.

Some weeks ago, I found myself on the receiving end of a stoning from a group of youngsters while their parents looked on. Later that same day, as I escorted a group of schoolgirls along a deserted street, I found myself being followed by three or four men, one of them armed with an automatic rifle. The building where these girls attend school has smashed windows and walls covered with graffiti.

Where was I? I was certainly not walking the quiet streets of Kirkcudbright, the small fishing town in South West Scotland that I call home. I was in fact in the city of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank. The schoolgirls were Palestinians and the children throwing the stones were Israeli settlers. The graffiti on the school building reads "Death to the Arabs" and the men following me were members of an extremist Israeli settler organisation.

What was I doing? I was in Hebron visiting two colleagues in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The programme was set up by the World Council of Churches in response to a request from the heads of the churches in Jerusalem to put internationals on the ground to observe and report on human rights abuses and to accompany Palestinians and Israelis where needed.

Under the programme, 21 international workers and volunteers coming from seven countries are today placed in various locations. Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States are represented among the 14 women and seven men ranging in age from 24 to 66 years. Canada and the United Kingdom are also part of the programme and continue to send volunteers. They serve a minimum of three months as ecumenical accompaniers, engaged in advocacy efforts to bring about an end to the occupation of Palestine through non-violent means.

I was stationed in Jerusalem as part of a team partnering with Israeli groups. It is the role of that team to assist Israeli peace activists and also to try to act as a bridge between them and our teams in the West Bank.
Conflict is not the only type of interaction between Israelis and Palestinians

My encounter with Israeli settlers in Hebron may lead some to conclude that there is no cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis here, but that is not the case at all. There are many peace organisations in Israel doing tremendous work to ease the plight of the Palestinians. Regrettably, their own communities often revile them and they constitute only a small, even if very vocal, minority of Israelis.

One such organisation is Machsom (Checkpoint) Watch. This is a group of about 180 women who go to the many checkpoints to assist Palestinians who have difficulty getting to their destinations. Machsom Watch is a female-only organization for a reason. "This has to be the case," says Rani Hammerman, a member of the group. "Men seem to be perceived as a threat to soldiers."

I recently went with Machsom Watch to the Kalandia checkpoint on the main road between Ramallah and Jerusalem. I watched as they made contact with a man who had travelled from Nablus to take his son to a psychiatrist in Ramallah. His son had been shot last year and had emotional problems as a result. Unfortunately, this man had the wrong ID and had no proof of his visit to the doctor. Therefore, he was being prevented from returning home. Machsom Watch was able to intercede with the soldiers and persuade them to allow the man and his son to pass.

Another man, whose pass had expired the previous day, was detained and three soldiers led him away. Immediately, one of the women went with them to ensure that the man was not ill treated. These dedicated women go out day after day in all weathers, using their expertise and status as Israeli citizens to help Palestinians.

"There are people who live on the Jerusalem side of the checkpoint but have Palestinian IDs," Hammerman explains. "They cross into the West Bank to work but they can't legally get back home. This creates frustration and anger."

Ta'ayush, which means "Living together", is another organisation attempting to bring relief to Palestinians. I recently spent several days in Yanoun, a small village in the West Bank with 90 inhabitants, many of them subsistence farmers. Yanoun's problems began in 1998, when the Israeli government confiscated more than 95% of the villagers' land. Since then, Israeli settlers from the nearby Itamar settlement have moved in and established an outpost on the hills surrounding the village.

For two years, the settlers harassed the villagers, smashing windows, destroying the generator that provided the four daily hours of electricity the village had, terrorising the children as they went to school and ultimately shooting two of the villagers, killing one.

In October 2002, almost all the villagers fled. Ta'ayush called a meeting of the villagers and internationals in nearby Aqraba to discuss the situation. "Ta'ayush told the villagers that they must go back immediately, otherwise the settlers would take over," said Marie-Jo, an international volunteer.

The Israeli group helped organise an international team of volunteers to live in the village and accompany the residents as they tend their sheep and their land. As a result, approximately 90 of the 300-plus villagers were persuaded to return. The villagers who have returned are determined to hold onto the land they still have."We were refugees from 1948," said one of them. "We are determined we are not going to leave again."
However, there is still great fear for the future among the people of Yanoun and the villagers I spoke with are all clearly still terrified of the settlers. Another villager said: "If you (internationals) leave in the morning, we will leave in the evening."

There is still work to be done

In my time here I have seen evidence of the control and humiliation to which the Palestinians are subjected regularly. Not to mention issues such as the so-called "separation wall" being built right down the middle of Palestinian towns and villages, splitting them in two and separating families from each other while confiscating land from farmers.

I have heard Israelis say that they are ashamed of the policies of their government towards the Palestinians, but they are in the minority. Said one pessimistic Israeli: "Most Israelis don't want to know about the occupation and think all Palestinians are terrorists. They (the Israelis) are too busy making money."

Somehow, I feel they must be made to understand what the Palestinians have lost and how they are being humiliated and controlled. I fear that there can be no hope for a lasting peace until the Palestinians are given back some of what they have lost and, above all, their dignity.

* Neil Cavers, 55, from the United Kingdom, recently completed his service as an ecumenical accompanier with the WCC's Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. A graduate lawyer from Edinburgh University, he has been active on the congregational board of Kirkcudbright Parish Church of Scotland since 1985. A member of a church bible study home group and a leader of a parish church youth group, he is a committed pacifist and believes that anything other than pacifism only perpetuates violence.

Free photos are available at :
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/palestine/eappi/feb04eappi-feature.html

The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) was launched in August 2002. Ecumenical accompaniers monitor and report violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, support acts of non-violent resistance alongside local Christian and Muslim Palestinians and Israeli peace activists, offer protection through non-violent presence, engage in public policy advocacy, and stand in solidarity with the churches and all those struggling against the occupation. The programme is co-ordinated by the World Council of Churches.

Website: http://www.eappi.org


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The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.