Congressional Accompaniment Project

A hands-on educational experience for members of Congress, their Foreign Policy Aides and their local constituents

The Congressional Accompaniment Project is an program by which Americans, concerned for a just peace in Israel/Palestine, can assist their Congressional representatives and/or their foreign policy Aides to be more informed regarding the “facts on the ground” in Israel/Palestine.

In the midst of this highly charged and crucial area of global peacemaking, the Congressional Accompaniment Project offers an opportunity for local church, ecumenical or community groups to accompany their own Congressional representatives or their principal Aides on a guided fact-finding tour to Israel and Palestine led by the staff of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem.

The Congressional Accompaniment Project can be a powerful tool toward assisting members of Congress achieve more informed, fair and even handed attitudes and policy-making in the Middle East. This, in turn, will help to bring an end to the violence, enable just peacemaking in the region, and contribute toward making the American people as well as the people of Israel and Palestine more secure, and the United States more respected among the world of nations.

The Congressional Accompaniment Tour includes meetings with both Israeli and Palestinian governmental officials, American Consulate staff, as well as non-governmental professionals, educators and people in all walks of life. It will include travel in Israel and within the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Occupied Territories to visit areas of conflict and dispute – refugee camps, the “Wall,” housing demolitions, “settlements,” security checkpoints, sacred sites, etc.

This effort is endorsed by a number of religious & human rights groups including the Presbytery of East Iowa of the Presbyterian Church (USA); the Iowa S.E. Lutheran Synod, (ELCA); the Eastern Iowa Coalition for Peace and Justice in Israel/Palestine; Iowa People for Justice in Palestine (PJP); Friends of Sabeel North America; and the Sabeel Ecumenical Christian Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. It is conducted in accordance with the purposes and goals of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and is a program of the Eschaton Foundation.

Contact Rev. Darrell & Sue Yeaney <suedy2@comcast.net>> or for Iowa Rev. Robin Kash for Iowa <rekle@mchsi.com> for further information. The 2008 tour, open to all, is scheduled for the congressional spring recess, March 14 - 24, 2008.