Note #9266 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06239 April 27, 2006
WCC protests settlers' violence against Christian volunteers in Hebron
by Juan Michel WCC News and Information
GENEVA - Expressing "alarm and concern," the World Council of Churches (WCC) has made a formal protest to the Israeli ambassador in Switzerland over two recent incidents involving violence by Israeli settlers against Christian volunteers from the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).
In an April 25 letter to Israeli ambassador Aviv Shir-On, the director of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, Peter Weiderud, requested action by Israeli authorities and law-enforcement agencies to stop "abusive, unlawful and violent behavior by settlers toward Palestinians and internationals."
On April 1, Silvana Hogg, a Swiss lawyer, was stoned by a young Israeli settler in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron; he needed seven stitches for a head wound as a result. On April 20, in the same neighborhood, Karin Laier, a German social worker and Tore Ottesen, a Norwegian sociologist, were attacked by about 15 young settlers. They were bruised but weren't seriously injured.
In both cases, the Christian volunteers were on duty, escorting Palestinian pupils of the Cordoba Girls School to protect them from harassment by settlers. The volunteers are members of a team of four EAPPI accompaniers who have been placed in Hebron since February.
The Cordoba Girls School is opposite the Beit Hadassah settlement. Its pupils and teachers are frequent targets of settlers' stone-throwing, kicking and spitting.
The violent incidents, although "serious in and of themselves" are just "a small fraction of the settler- and other occupation-related attacks against Palestinians in Hebron, in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem," Weiderud said in his letter to the Israeli ambassador in Switzerland.
Stressing that the root of the problem is "the practice of establishing, protecting and expanding settlements," Weiderud also requested "concrete steps that lead to the complete withdrawal of all settlers from Hebron and return of settler-occupied properties to their Palestinian owners."
Reaffirming the WCC's longstanding commitment to a peaceful resolution of the conflict, Weiderud said the council "strongly condemns all forms of violence and attacks perpetrated by the State of Israel inside the Occupied Palestinian Territories and by Palestinian armed groups inside the State of Israel."
The EAPPI, coordinated by the WCC, was founded in 2002; it has deployed 270 accompaniers from 14 countries. Its purpose is to support Palestinians and Israelis working for peace by monitoring and reporting violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, offering protection by accompanying people in daily activities, and standing in solidarity with the churches and advocating with them for a peaceful end to the occupation.
For the full text of Weiderud's letter, go to http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?id=2131
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