Reverend Doctor Denise Yarbrough is the Interreligious Officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester, New York, and a teacher of Interfaith Studies at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.

In July of last year, she was part of a delegation that traveled to Israel and the Palestine under the sponsorship of Interfaith Peace Builders and the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

There, she spent much time in the West Bank and in Palestinian sections of Israel itself, speaking with both Palestinian and Israeli human rights and peace activists.

Tariq Jeeroburkhan recently caught up with Reverend Yarbrough by telephone to hear her opinions on the historical role played by Protestant Christian denominations in the founding of the State of Israel, and the influence of Christian Zionism in ensuring its continued existence and development.