About Me

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Marty Harms (I'm the one on the left), and I will be spending the next three months in Israel and Palestine as an Ecumenical Accompanier (EA). The EA program, run by the World Council of Churches, was created to support the nonviolent Israeli and Palestinian peace movements that seek an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territories. As an EA, we are here to “accompany” these people both literally and figuratively, whether that be through escorting Palestinian children to school, observing checkpoints, being present at nonviolent demonstrations, or just listening to their stories. We are also here to accompany by giving them a voice to the outside world, through the blog I’m writing, or the presentations I will be giving to people, organizations, and churches when I return home.

The Programme consists of six different placements in Israel and the West Bank, each with four members from a collection of different countries around the globe, including Sweden, the U.K., Norway, and South Africa to name a few. Each person brings with them a unique background and perspective to the conflict, some are nurses, others are pastors, journalists, students, engineers, but they all have a desire to see change that translates to peace and security for both sides. I have been placed in Jerusalem along with Audrey Gray, a 74 year old retired nurse from England, Erik Persson, an economics student from Sweden, and Brigitte Siegenthaler, a pastor from Switzerland (the man in the picture is Kurt, a nurse from Norway who was on the previous Jerusalem team). The other placements are Bethlehem, Tulkarem, Yanoun, Jayyous, and Hebron.

A little more background information,

I received my bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Michigan in 2003. After spending some time as an intern on the Hill in Washington D.C., I returned to U of M to work as the research coordinator for the Korean Studies Program at the International Institute. My focus on Korea would bring me to Seoul a year later on a scholarship to study Korean and continue my research interests there. After three years in Korea, where I did a variety of jobs from teaching English to translation work for the National Museum, I came back to Michigan where I learned more about the conflict in Israel and Palestine from my father, a Lutheran pastor who has been very active in advocacy work on the region both here and abroad. Before attending law school in the fall of 2008, I decided to get involved myself.

To learn more about the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, check out the website at http://www.eappi.org/