The following snapshot of a Bedouin family in occupied Palestine was filed by Scott Smith, a South African Ecumenical Accompanier based in Jayyous. The views expressed herein are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the SACC or the WCC. See below for more information on the EAPPI programme.

“They just want us out, but we have nowhere to go”

Abdallah’s family has been living in their hamlet close to Qalqiliya since 1957. He tells us that his grandfather had to leave Bir Saba with his family in 1948, and until 1957 they grazed their sheep in the area around Hebron. When they had to leave from there, they settled in Arab ar-rahmadin ash-shamali. The hamlet consists of 28 people who live off selling young goats and goat’s cheese, while keeping chickens and other animals. In addition they make little plastic trinkets that they sell in Qalqiliya.

In 1989, the Zufin settlement was built, and since then the Bedouins have been living inside the fence that surrounds the settlement. They have special permits to go in and out, but they cannot have visitors, and the hamlet has been under a constant threat of demolition the last ten years. And on the 12th of March 2008, the IDF came with a bulldozer and demolished two of their houses, one for animals, the other a diwan for the men. After the demolition, the IDF handed over a demolition order that says that the Bedouins have until 28 April 2008 to give a reason to the court why their homes should not be demolished. The order concerns 10 homes, which effectively means the demolition of the rest of the hamlet. Abdallah doesn’t think that the Israelis want to build on the land. “They just want us out, but we have nowhere to go”, he says.

This story of Abdallah and his family is unfortunately not a single case. There are a number of Bedouin families in the Qalqiliya district whose homes are on the other side of the Israeli separation barrier and they all are experiencing increasing hardships in the face of demolitions, lack of infrastructure, and dwindling access to resources.

The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) was launched in August 2002. Ecumenical accompaniers monitor and report violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, support acts of non-violent resistance alongside local Christian and Muslim Palestinians and Israeli peace activists, offer protection through non-violent presence, engage in public policy advocacy, and stand in solidarity with the churches and all those struggling against the occupation. The programme is coordinated by the World Council of Churches.

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works co-operatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly, which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by General Secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist Church in Kenya.

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