Our February lunchtime speaker was Phil Craine who in 2014 spent 3 months based in Jerusalem representing the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel acting as an observer and ‘neutral’ reporter for the UN. There are 30 such observers at any one time coming from many different countries and acting in 6 key areas. Phil gave us a very clear account of the history of the current complex and seemingly intractable situation in the West Bank area before donning his special EAPPI identification jacket to review just a few of his memorable experiences. He showed pictures of house demolitions (some 80,000 Palestinian homes built without Israeli planning permission in the ‘occupied’ territory are condemned to be demolished at a financial cost to the owners –it’s cheaper if it’s DIY!). Phil then showed distant views of Gaza – (too dangerous to enter with missiles still being fired into Israeli towns) and some Palestinian farmers ploughing their fields to ensure they retained ownership of them – at present they don’t plant them up since some nearby Israeli settlers have been known to destroy the crops.

The talk was extremely informative and members responded with many questions and observations both during and after the talk. When asked what the programme had achieved Phil felt that the mere presence of EAPPI observers at checkpoints etc may well have helped to ease tensions.

Our speaker at the next lunch on Wednesday 9th March will be the President of Tynwald Clare Christian. If you would like to become a member of Probus or find out a bit more about it please contact our Secretary John Christal on 812565 or email at dejay1@manx.net.