Randy Janzen has seen homes razed and schools bulldozed. He has met families cast out of their lands. He has seen what it is to live in one of the most violent, politically charged places on Earth.

For two weeks this summer, the Nelson native visited the occupied West Bank as part of an international group that advocates for non-violent conflict resolution. Janzen toured the area and met with local activists to determine what, if any, peaceful acts might help de-escalate tensions between Palestinians and Israelis.

Then just two days after he returned to Canada, Janzen found out the home of his colleague's in-laws had been seized by Israeli settlers who argue the land is Israel's right to settle after it was annexed during the 1967 Arab-Israel War.

"It's devastating. It's very personal. You just feel it's such a strong injustice."

Janzen, a retired Selkirk College professor who taught in the Peace and Conflict Studies program, is a practioner of unarmed civilian protection, which refers to the use of de-escalation techniques, relationship building and mediation in order to protect civilians from volatile situations. Janzen and his wife Mary Ann Morris have worked on such initiatives around the globe including Guatemala, South Sudan and Burundi.

He's also well-acquainted with West Bank, having first visited there in 2007. Two years ago Janzen joined a group in the West Bank city of Hebron where he monitored Palestinian children on their way to school as they passed through checkpoints staffed by Israeli military.

In July and early August, Janzen returned to collaborate with three others including a pair of Palestinian peace activists. Their work, which was funded by Nonviolence International, was to assess how feasible it would be to mobilize a large-scale unarmed group to support Palestinians and reduce settler violence. It will present a report on the trip to the United Nations next month.

Janzen says the group's goals are not political 鈥� they aren't advocating for a two-state solution, for example. The aim is simply to protect civilian lives.

鈥淚t's easy to say, 鈥極h, no one likes war, and everyone wants peace.鈥� But what are we actually doing, practically speaking, evidence-based pragmatic methodologies, to veer us from that destructive trajectory? And so this is part of that.鈥�

There's a pressing need for de-escalation in West Bank, where violence has escalated since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and began the war in Gaza.

Since the attack, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says 585 Palestinians have been killed in West Bank while 3,070 Palestinians have been displaced by demolitions and confiscations.

The U.N.'s International Court of Justice,  on July 19, issued an advisory opinion that Israel's West Bank settlement policies violate international law. But that ruling, which is , is non-binding and was immediately criticized by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

鈥淥bviously, the world is focused on Gaza for good reasons," said Janzen. "But while that's happening, there's this unprecedented level of violence in the West Bank, and it's coming out of the system of apartheid. And it's coming out of this occupation that affords one side all of the power and privilege, and one side nothing.鈥�

The establishment of an unarmed civilian protection group would exist specifically to provide protection for Palestinians from Israeli settlers in places such as Umm al-Khair, a small Palestinian community in the south that neighbours the Israeli settlement Carmel. The Associated Press reported in July that , and were followed by settler attacks.

Using unarmed civilians to de-escalate a nearly six-decade-old crisis may sound like impossible work. Even Janzen concedes he isn't sure how effective such a group might be. Traditional peace activism, he says, has become undermined by governments who no longer care how their actions are perceived by the international community.

Still, Janzen sees the effort as one piece leading to eventual peace and points to similar actions during civil rights movements in the United States and South Africa.

鈥淵ou can't just measure success by looking at the short-term outcomes. You have to put yourself in the long term, bending the arc.鈥�

Activists are also welcomed by people who feel forgotten by the international community. Their work matters, says Janzen, both on the ground and in the stories they tell after leaving.

鈥淲hat we've heard over and over again from the groups, your work here is important to bear witness. So many people said, 鈥業f you don't come we actually feel abandoned. When you come in we feel like someone's actually with us. We feel the solidarity, and your most important effective work is not happening over here. When you go home, that's when your real work has to begin.鈥欌��