A visit to Eappi (Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel) in Yanun

11 a.m. We arrive at Akraba, a large, prosperous looking town east of Nablus, set in rolling hills and with a spectacular view of the Jordan Valley. Our destination is Yanun, a smaller village north of Akraba, where EAPPI has a center.

A project of the World Council of Churches, EAPPI’s Yanun center is permanently staffed by three Christians of various denominations from many countries, each for a period of three months. EAPPI was established in 2002 when local church leaders requested an international presence in the country.

Our host is Per Albin from Sweden, who tells us the project originated as a response to the exodus of Christians from Palestine (which reflects a trend throughout the Middle East).

Per told us their work includes observing and monitoring the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories under the occupation.  They visit churches in Ramallah and Nablus, and are active throughout the Nablus Governorate, from Hebron in the south to Jenin in the north. They also collaborate with Israeli human rights groups like B’tselem, Breaking the Silence, and MachsomWatch.

From the stone house on a hill in Yanun where the EAPPI volunteers live, you can see a few buildings – an outpost of the settlement of Itamar –strung out atop the opposite hill, along with a communications tower.

Per told us a sort of unofficial “agreement” between settlers and Yanun residents has established an invisible boundary that Palestinians may not cross. He says a brush fire broke out recently on the rocky hillside leading up to the outpost, possibly caused by a cigarette.  Both Palestinians and settlers rushed to put out the fire, and once it was extinguished, the settlers told the Palestinians to go back to their homes.  Then the army arrived, and detained two Palestinian men, who were later released.

For years, the settlers of Itamar would often enter Yanun and harass the residents. In the last year or so, EAPPI observers have seen that things are calmer and the settlers are hardly seen.  

But he tells us that he recently saw two bulldozers on the opposite hill, indicating that there are probably plans to build for the settlers there.

The EAPPI volunteers enter Israel on tourist visas, limited to three months in the country. Per reports that in the last two or three years, such visas are becoming more difficult to obtain. He himself is here in place of a Swede who was refused entry, and he knows of a recent case in which a South African was also refused entry after interrogation at the airport.

Per was a volunteer eight years ago.  How would he compare the situation then and now?

The occupation has become more institutionalized, as though it’s here to stay, he says. There are more soldiers, even at open checkpoints. The occupation has become harsher. As for the attitude of the Palestinians, he says there seems to be less anger and “more patience.”  When he was here the last time, he recalls, the barrier at Bethlehem was being built. “A Palestinian grabbed me by the shirt, and said to me very angrily, ‘You have to tell the world what is happening here.’  Today no one even notices us.”

Leaving Akraba, we see that someone has painted on a wall, in English

“The last day of the occupation is the first day of peace.”