Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel

EAPPI combines temporary field placements with post-service advocacy. Its stated activities include protective presence, monitoring and reporting alleged human-rights abuses, supporting local peace and human-rights groups, and sharing participants' accounts with churches, public officials, media, civil society, and businesses after they return home.[1] This combination of field observation and international advocacy has shaped both the program's international reach and debates over its political balance.[1]

EAPPI was placed within the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence campaign and grew directly from appeals by church leaders in Jerusalem.[3] The WCC Executive Committee recommended developing an accompaniment program in August 2001, and EAPPI came into being in February 2002 with the committee's approval.[2] A locally registered NGO served as custodian for a representative office in Jerusalem.[2]

A 2019 NGO Monitor report called EAPPI the WCC's "flagship project" on the Arab-Israeli conflict and said it was coordinated from the WCC's Peacebuilding section in Geneva.[1] The EAPPI database is a publication of the World Council of Churches Association, was created by the WCC, and is covered by intellectual-property rights that belong to the WCC unless otherwise indicated.[4]

Volunteers — called Ecumenical Accompaniers — are selected through country-specific church-based national coordinators and deployed in three-month placements across several locations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.[1] Placements have included East Jerusalem, Qalqylya/Tulkarem, Jericho, the South Hebron Hills, Hebron, Bethlehem, and Yannoun, as well as checkpoints and other points of friction.[1] At any given time, 25 to 30 accompaniers serve in the field.[1]

Arriving volunteers receive approximately ten days of training in Jerusalem, including preparation for post-service advocacy, and participate in a two-day debriefing at the end of their placement.[1] A separate 2012 account described about 20 accompaniers arriving in the region each year and serving in Hebron, Jayyous, and Yanun. It also said participants were expected to take part in at least ten speaking events after returning home, with most doing more.[5] Returning volunteers have also been encouraged to write blogs and speak in their local churches.[6]

By 2016, approximately 1,500 volunteers had served since 2002.[7] A 2019 report put the cumulative total at 1,800, while a 2021 JNS opinion article described at least 1,800 volunteers serving over "the past couple of decades."[1][8] The program has operated not only in the West Bank and East Jerusalem but has also recruited volunteers and clergy from the United Kingdom, several European Union countries, and the United States.[9]

EAPPI's stated mission, as quoted in NGO Monitor's 2019 report, is to "witness life under occupation, engage with local Palestinians and Israelis pursuing a just peace, to change the international community's involvement in the conflict, urging them to act against injustice in the region."[1] The program's overview, as reproduced in critical sources, describes Ecumenical Accompaniers as providing "protective presence to vulnerable communities, monitor and report human rights abuses and support Palestinians and Israelis working together for peace."[3]

In the field, accompaniers gathered images and testimony related to checkpoint waits, home demolitions, and incidents during protests.[10] EAPPI publicist Larry Fata stated that accompaniers' presence at checkpoints "serves to lower the level of tension," and accompaniers worked alongside Machsom Watch, an Israeli group that monitored soldiers at checkpoints.[10] The program's monitoring work produced incident reports and checkpoint-monitoring logs that were shared with UN agencies and other organizations; WCC international coordinator Owe Boersma described this component as involving "a lot of administrative work which is fed into UN systems."[1]

Upon returning home, participants were expected to campaign for what the program described as "a just and peaceful resolution" through "an end to the occupation, respect for international law and implementation of UN resolutions."[3][11] Advocacy occurred through churches, governments, media, civil society, and business settings.[1] The program also promoted non-violent actions, and participants took part in concerted advocacy efforts alongside local partners.[9]

Since 2013, UNICEF funded projects implemented with EAPPI concerning protected and safe access to schools in vulnerable communities in the West Bank.[1] EAPPI also served as an implementing partner on a 2015 UNICEF grant for documentation, reporting, information sharing, and data collection.[1] According to a July 2013 UNICEF situation report cited by NGO Monitor, a school-access project had provided safer and timelier access to schools for 3,317 children — 1,037 girls and 2,280 boys — along with 249 teachers.[1]

EAPPI's role in UNICEF-supported activities included protective presence and accompaniment for children and teachers, along with monitoring and documenting incidents affecting educational access.[12]

In 2012, the Church of England General Synod voted to support EAPPI, with 201 bishops, clergy, and laity in favor, 54 against, and 93 abstaining.[11] The motion was brought privately by Dr. John Dinnen of Hereford, who said it supported organizations working for just peace and the human rights of both Palestinians and Israelis.[5] The Church said it would encourage parishioners to volunteer and ask churches and synods to draw on the experience of returning participants.[11]

In 2019, the WCC planned to withdraw its observers from Hebron, citing safety concerns and alleged harassment by Jewish residents and Israeli soldiers; the WCC described its Hebron work as a peaceful protective presence.[13] Im Tirtzu claimed its campaign against the group contributed to the decision, though the cited account did not report that EAPPI as a whole ceased operations.[13]

From 2005 to 2007, EAPPI published a quarterly newsletter called ChainReaction.[3] The Summer 2007 issue contained an article titled "40 Ways to End the Occupation," which called on readers to boycott settlement products, support an artistic and cultural boycott of Israel, and hack government websites.[10] Critical sources highlighted these contents as illustrative of the program's political orientation; whether they represented official EAPPI policy is not established by the available material.

In November 2010, EAPPI held a training seminar for 18 activists in Quezon City, Philippines, as part of a larger conference organized by Peace For Life. The seminar was apparently intended to recruit Ecumenical Accompaniers from the Philippines, though the source did not establish how many participants ultimately joined the program.[3]

EAPPI has been the subject of sustained criticism from Israeli and Jewish organizations. The Board of Deputies of British Jews characterized the program as producing "very partisan" anti-Israel advocates whose presentations lacked balance.[11][5] The Council of Christians and Jews warned that some speeches and presentations could appear anti-Israel and risk leading to anti-Jewish sentiment.[5] Bishop Nigel McCulloch raised concerns that participants spent far more time in Palestinian areas than engaging with mainstream Israeli perspectives, and said the Church had a responsibility to hold EAPPI to account for fairer presentation of the Israeli side.[11]

NGO Monitor has characterized EAPPI's activities as politically advocacy-oriented and alleged that some participants and alumni promoted BDS and other anti-Israel campaigns, and that volunteer reports contributed to what it described as politicized UN reporting.[1][12] Its 2019 report alleged that WCC leadership and EAPPI volunteers had repeatedly compared Israeli actions to Nazi Germany in advocacy sessions. A 2021 JNS opinion article reported the same allegation while also quoting the WCC as saying it did not countenance such comparisons in EAPPI training or otherwise.[8]

The JCPA and JCFA articles in the available sources argue that the program gives an unbalanced account of the conflict and pays insufficient attention to Palestinian terrorism and Israeli security concerns.[3][10] These are the assessments of those organizations and are not independently established findings. EAPPI's own stated framing — accompaniment, human rights, and support for just peace — represents the program's self-description as reproduced by critical sources.[3][1]