Human rights monitor speaks about visit to Israel
St Margaret’s Justice and Peace Group invited Philippa Bonella to Lochgilphead on Tuesday February 5 to talk about her experiences as a human rights monitor on the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).
She was in the Holy Land for three months last year and spent time on the West Bank in Palestinian villages surrounded by Israeli settlements.
Philippa told her audience that the EAPPI sends batches of people of all nationalities to the Holy Land for these three-month stints, where the monitors are split into small groups and must operate in pairs for safety.
She recalled particular incidents – schools tear-gassed by Israeli troops, homes searched in raids during the middle of the night, families prevented from picking their olives, Palestinian villages surrounded by Israelis in mobile homes, supported by Israeli government-funded water and electricity supplies.
Human rights monitors must be impartial and Philippa did her utmost to present a balanced picture and all EAPPI monitors share their findings and experiences with the UN with the intention of furthering solutions in this troubled region. Her conclusions drawn from experience was that when the monitors were around, there may have been unpleasant situations, but no tragedies. When there was no monitor around – clearly defined by their uniforms – people died. Philippa had only been home for eight weeks when she spoke to the Justice and Peace Group, and she admitted that she was still processing the often brutal and violent scenes she had witnessed.
And though she wryly joked that it had not exactly been a picnic, she encouraged her audience to become involved in the work of EAPPI – through prayer, support, even by volunteering to be a monitor (at whatever age as one lady in her group had been well qualified for a bus pass). For more information, visit eappi.org/en or visit the EAPPI Facebook page @ EAPPI.WCC.