Gill+Swain

=Gill Swain - **Journalist, Editor, Biographer, Human Rights Worker** = In 2007 Gill spent three months living in the West Bank serving as a human rights observer and became passionately committed to the cause of obtaining justice for the Palestinians. In January 2009, she took on the editorship of [|**Palestine News**] , the quarterly magazine produced by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.  From September to December, 2007, Gill worked for the [|**Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel**]  (EAPPI) as a human rights observer. She was stationed in the West Bank city of Hebron and experienced life under Israeli military occupation alongside the Palestinian population. The programme began in 2002 in response to an appeal from the churches in Jerusalem to the [|**World Council of Churches.**]  Participants monitor and report on violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, support Palestinian and Israeli peace activists, offer protection through international presence, engage in public policy advocacy and generally stand in solidarity with all those protesting against the occupation. Thirteen countries take part in the programme which in the UK is managed by [|**Quaker Peace and Social Witness**] . Whilst in Hebron, Gill wrote [|**newsletters**]  which she circulated to politicians, church leaders, family and friends and posted as a blog on the Daily Mirror’s website. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Her commitment to working for a just peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is ongoing and has led to her taking on the editorship of Palestine News. Gill Swain will be speaking at LVS on Wednesday 2nd December 2009 on "The history of the Israel Palestine conflict"
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Gill Swain **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> has worked as a journalist for over 35 years, reporting from all over the world. She was a news reporter at the Daily Mail and a feature writer at the Daily Mirror and spent shorter periods on the staffs of the Daily Express and The People. She now freelances for a wide spectrum of <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">[|**newspapers and magazines**] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
 * <span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Human Rights Work **