Pax Christi to help monitor Palestinian elections

Stewart Hemsley, Chairperson of Pax Christi, is joining with MPs, Trade Unionists and others as a monitor for the forthcoming elections in Palestine on 9 January. Pax Christi Netherlands will also send an observer. Mr Hemsley left London on Sunday January with Jeremy Corbyn MP and other observers. They are part of an international monitoring team which is coordinated in France by the Coordination de l'Appel de Strasbourg and the Popular Committee for the elections in Palestine. Monitors will be based in Gaza and the West Bank and will ensure that the elections take place without intervention or interference. In particular they will monitor the impact of the occupation on the voting process - to safeguard that the closures, checkpoints, etc which are a feature of the occupation, to not inhibit the electoral process. Pax Christi seeks to raise awareness of the impact of the occupation on the people of Palestine and to create opportunities for dialogue and encounter between people of faith in the region and beyond to create a just peace for the region. Pax Christi is an international Catholic movement for peace, founded in 1945, with sections in five continents. It has a vision of the world where people can live in peace and without fear of violence, in all its forms. Pax Christi works to ensure that the message of peace is heard by the Church, by decision makers and those working in our communities.