Jon Neall, a member and a deacon, will soon be leaving for the West Bank of Israel to work as a volunteer with EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel). During his time there he will live and work with a team of 4-5 other people from any one of 14 different nationalities

His role will be to

·         offer protection through non-violent presence

·          monitor and report violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by either Israelis or Palestinians

·          support Israeli and Palestinian peace activists

·          undertake advocacy work including public speaking in the UK

Practically this means that he will live on the West Bank, living and sharing accommodation with other colleagues and together they will;

·         stand at checkpoints to try to reduce the abuse of Palestinian civilians and help them gain access to their land, jobs, education or medical facilities;

·          escort Palestinian children to school to minimise harassment by extremist Jewish settlers;

·          join with Israeli and Palestinian peace groups in peaceful demonstrations, protesting about the occupation or about house demolitions etc;

·          write regular reports about what is observed. These will be used in subsequent advocacy work in the UK.

We wish him well for this challenging work and look forward to hearing about his experiences.