wfn.org | FEATURE: Broadened Horizons from a Conflict Zone

["Frank Imhoff" <Frank.Imhoff@elca.org>]

FEATURE: Broadened Horizons from a Conflict Zone
LWF Council Members Share Insights on Israeli-Palestinian Program

WEST BANK/GENEVA, 27 October 2005 (LWI) * "Travelling to a conflict zone,
to meet people and understand the way they live was a privileged moment.
It has deepened my own faith," is how Canadian Lutheran pastor, Dr David
Pfrimmer, summed up his visit to Jayyous, a small Palestinian village near
Tulkarem in the West Bank.

Pfrimmer and other representatives of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
member churches attending the August 31-September 6 annual Council
meeting, had taken part in a three-day exposure visit with the Ecumenical
Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The LWF Office
for International Affairs and Human Rights had organized the visit prior
to the Council meeting in Bethlehem and Jerusalem to enable interested
persons to learn more about the complex conflict between Israel and
Palestine, and to experience the living conditions of the Palestinian
people.

An initiative of the World Council of Churches begun in 2002, the EAPPI
currently brings international visitors from a wide range of ecumenical
backgrounds to live and work in seven places across the West Bank
(Bethlehem, Hebron, Jayyous, Ramallah, Tulkarem, Yanoun) and Jerusalem.
Alongside local Christian and Muslim Palestinian and Israeli peace
activists, the EAPPI focuses on supporting non-violent resistance to the
conflict. The international visitors, so-called EAPPI "accompaniers," by
their very presence on site offer protection to the Palestinian population.
A Complex Structure Hinders Movement

Of particular interest was Israel's barrier or separation wall, built to
prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from entering Israeli territory. Under
construction since June 2002, the wall is expected to reach at least 650
kilometers inside the West Bank, according to Vermonters for a Just Peace
in Palestine/Israel (VTJP), a local organization promoting the equality
and safety of both Palestinians and Israelis through education, advocacy
and action.

At a maximum height of eight meters currently, with shorter sections at
six meters, the barrier is a combination of high concrete sections for
areas perceived as especially vulnerable, and a shorter fenced-only part.
The VTJP notes that in addition to the concrete wall and fencing materials
used to build the structure, some sections also include electric fencing,
roads for patrol vehicles, electronic ground/fence sensors, thermal
imaging and videotape cameras, among other things.

The tasks of the EAPPI accompaniers include monitoring human rights
abuses, witnessing and reporting house demolition, working with refugees,
and accompanying Palestinians, including children on their way to school,
to checkpoints at the fence or Israeli separation wall.

Trust in International Accompaniers

"It was most impressive to see the trust that people put in international
presence for the sake of their own security," said LWF Council member,
Rev. Chandran Paul Martin from India who, like Pfrimmer, joined the EAPPI
for three days, and was based in Yanoun. The small Palestinian village is
surrounded by mountains, where Israeli settlers have erected buildings and
patrol cameras. Settlers used to frequently come down the mountains to
intimidate the Palestinian population. The EAPPI began their permanent
presence in Yanoun in 2004. Since then, there have been no major assaults
against the local Palestinians.

Youth members of the LWF Council and stewards, who met for a separate
Pre-Council Workshop in Jerusalem, joined the EAPPI for one day. They
visited Jayyous, Yanoun, Hebron and Bethlehem.

Twenty-nine-year-old Milita Poskiene from Lithuania was particularly
shaken by a story about Israeli children coming down from the settlements
to Yanoun carrying machine guns. "We were told that some of them were as
young as 10 years, and not much taller than their guns. They threatened
the Palestinian farmers. But being under age they cannot be prosecuted for
any act of violence. This disposition toward violence is really scary,"
she said.

Broadened Horizons

LWF Council meeting steward from Iceland, Gudmundur Björn Thorbjörnsson aged 19, joined an EAPPI team to Hebron, where about 450 Jewish fundamentalist settlers had settled among a majority Palestinian population
occupying the upper levels of houses right in the middle of town. As the
settlers had taken to throwing stones and garbage onto Palestinian passers
by in the streets, it had been necessary to put wire mesh over the
streets. The visit not only broadened the young Icelander's "horizon" in
relation to the conflict, but also compelled him to "spread the word"
about what he had experienced.

Pfrimmer, a member of the LWF Council's Program Committee for International Affairs and Human Rights, was shocked by the oppression the Palestinian
people face in Jayyous. The village is fenced in on one side, so the
farmers experience great difficulty in reaching their plots of land, which
are on the other side of the fence.

He cautioned against being misled by biased media reports on the conflict
in Palestine and Israel, noting that the Church had a role to play in
making the Palestinian story heard.

Martin compared the situation of the Palestinian people with the living
conditions of the Dalit people in India. "Oppression, exclusion and
discrimination are the same here as in India," he said. Inspired by the
EAPPI, the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India executive secretary
plans to initiate a similar program back home: "I would like to replicate
the EAPPI in India in the Dalit context, because without international
presence the perpetrators are not afraid. EAPPI could serve as a model for
a new program in India." (890 words)

(By Julia Heyde, youth intern, LWF Office for Communication Services.)

*This article is part of the ongoing series of LWI Features on Healing
focusing on the 2003 LWF Tenth Assembly theme, "For the Healing of the
World." The stories about activities that promote reconciliation and
healing present the relevance of the Assembly theme in the different
contexts of the worldwide Lutheran communion.

*	*	*

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140
member churches in 78 countries all over the world, with a total membership of nearly 66 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in
areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith relations,
theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the
various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat is
located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service. Unless
specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or
opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an
article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced
with acknowledgment.]

*	*	*

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