September 29, 2004
by Michele Green
Ecumenical News International

JERUSALEM - Two Christian peace activists from the United States were attacked and brutally beaten in the southern West Bank on Wednesday by a group of masked men who they said were Jewish settlers.

Kim Lamberty and Chris Brown, members of the Christian Peacemakers Team movement, were accosted by five masked men dressed in black and wielding chains as they escorted a group of Palestinian children to school south of the West Bank city of Hebron.

"We were accompanying the children because they have to walk through a Jewish settler area. When we got to that area five men came out. They had chains and black masks. The children ran away and they came after Chris and me," said Lamberty, 44.

"They threw me to the group and beat me and the same with Chris and then they disappeared into the trees," Lamberty told Ecumenical News International. Her arm and knee were broken in the incident while Brown, 39, sustained a punctured lung.

Israeli ambulances rushed to the scene and evacuated the two activists to a hospital in the Israeli desert town of Beersheba where they were treated for their injuries.

Lamberty said she was certain the assailants were Jewish settlers as she said that Palestinians did not visit the area where the incident took place which is near a Jewish settlement, seen as a bastion for gun-totting militants.

"There are only settlers there. Nobody else can go there," Lamberty said. She said the assailants, who did not speak during the incident, also stole a passport, a cellular mobile telephone and money.

Scores of Israeli police were deployed at the scene which they scoured for evidence and clues on the identities of the attackers.

A police spokesman said investigators were looking into the possibility the attack was carried out by either Jewish settlers or Palestinians.

"We do not make assumptions. All avenues are being investigated," the spokesman said.

Lamberty and Brown were part of the nine-member Christian Peacemaker Team movement which has operated in the southern West Bank city of Hebron since 1995. The organization's mission is to reduce conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the city, which is a hotbed for militants from both sides.

"We work on violence reduction in areas of conflict," Lamberty said. The group's activists in Hebron are from the United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand.

About 120 militant Jewish settlers live among 200,000 Palestinians in Hebron, the traditional burial place of the Biblical patriarch Abraham. The city and its environs are a frequent flashpoint for violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

Presbyterian News Service