EARTHCHAT: Witnessing Erasure, Practising Presence

Listen at noon, Tuesday 24 March on Seymour FM or anytime as a podcast.

What do you do when you see someone’s house being stolen or confiscated, their olive trees chopped down, their ground water diverted. What do you do when you see someone’s child stopped at a military checkpoint and harassed by soldiers who won’t let them get to school? What do you do when all these crimes are excused or ignored or the victims blamed?

John Wardlaw and Diana Johns are part of a group which has decided they needed to bear witness to this erasure. Both have recently returned from Palestine, where they were living for three months among Palestinian people who constantly experience these and other harassments, theft, assaults and terror. All because these people are in the wrong place and because their land, roads and water are required for illegal Israeli settlements or an expanded Israeli state.

John and Diana are Ecumenical Accompaniers, part of a program of the World Council of Churches. The program has responded to requests from church leaders in Occupied Palestine to create an international presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, to walk alongside communities, offer a protective presence, witness and report on human rights violations, and stand in solidarity with the local people. John and Diana were volunteers in this work, taking leave from their respective roles as a commercial lawyer and criminologist to respond to what seems to be ignored, illegal actions in the Holy Land.

On EarthChat this week they speak of their experience, the reality of life on the ground for Palestinians, how their connection with land is being erased as well as the courage of the people enduring occupation. This is the forgotten part of the Middle East conflict, overshadowed by the invasion of Lebanon and bombing of Iran, but it is important that we remember and bear witness to what is happening here.

Tune in to EarthChat on 103.9 FM at midday, Tuesday 24 March. Here is Seymour FM's website. 

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