WCC news: WCC accompaniers safely evacuate from Holy Land—but their work continues
The World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel has safely evacuated its 11 accompaniers from their posts in the Holy Land, but they will continue their work from their home countries to accompany and document human rights violations and the voices of communities facing great challenges.
In their shortened time on the ground, the accompaniers—the 102nd such group to serve—observed specific incidents indicating pressing challenges to the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem and beyond.
The evacuation amid escalating war is deeply painful for both the accompaniers themselves and the programme, said Iskandar Majlaton, programme coordinator for the WCC Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme Palestine and Israel.
“Palestinian communities, already facing intensifying settler violence, land annexation, and systematic dispossession, are now left without the vital presence of international protective accompaniment,” said Majlaton. “Women and children continue to bear the heaviest burden of these violations, further compounded by Israeli government policies that erode their rights and futures.”
Majlaton called on the international community to act with urgency. “Their voices, and their presence, must not be silenced,” he said.
When the presence of accompaniment must withdraw, the responsibility of the world to protect human life becomes even greater, reflected Carla Khijoyan, WCC programme executive for peace building in the Middle East. “Every life lost, every child forced to grow up in fear, every family displaced from their home is a wound to our shared humanity,” she said. “Faith calls us to refuse the normalization of violence and the erosion of dignity. The cry of those who suffer must awaken the conscience of the international community to act with courage—for the protection of civilians, for justice, and for a peace that honors the dignity of every human being.”
A WCC campaign, “From Condemnation to Consequences,” running 4-31 March, is calling on states to hold Israel accountable for ending the illegal occupation of Palestine.