Christian activists work for peace in Hebron

[Resistance]

By Margaret Coker | Cox News Service

In a city revered by Jews and Muslims as the burial place of the patriarch Abraham, there is nothing holy about the strife between Israelis and Palestinians.

So just what are a nice American grandmother and her small group of Christian friends doing here?

"Trying to bring justice to a place full of misery,'' said Bourke Kennedy, a 66-year-old retired schoolteacher from upstate New York.

The Christian Peacemakers in Hebron aim at helping these Palestinian families, whom the organization deems victims of unfair sanctions by Israeli army and abuse by the settlers. The settlers criticize the peacemakers as biased, but the group makes no apologies.

"Palestinians are living in a zone of fear, where no law protects them,'' said Greg Rollins, a former singer from Canada who has been a volunteer in Hebron for almost three years. "(The city) typifies a situation in which one party has most of the power and the other has little. There can't be justice until that is balanced.''