Episode 4- Witnessing Trip to the West Bank Part 2

Erna Kim Hackett and Barnabas Lin continue sharing what they witnessed in the West Bank (March 2025) with the Palestinian-led organization Sabeel. In Ramallah, they meet a multi-generational family of resisters—including Ahed—whose accounts of imprisonment, administrative detention, and psychological warfare confront the hosts with challenging moral clarity about colonialism, complicity, and courage. They also experience spaces of life and joy: a youth circus school, a park full of picnicking families, and a dance studio where Dabke becomes cultural memory and resistance. The episode contrasts West Jerusalem’s ease with the walled-in reality of Bethlehem—checkpoints, permits, separate roads—and reflects on a faith that refuses dehumanization while insisting on truth, perseverance, and the everyday work of building beauty.

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Organizations that were mentioned

• Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center — Hosted the witnessing trip; FOSNA (Friends of Sabeel North America) helps connect and coordinate groups from North America.
• Palestinian Circus School — Trauma-informed arts and play for youth; cultivating confidence, community, and healing.
• Dar al-Kalima University (Bethlehem) — Led by Rev. Mitri Raheb; arts/formation programs that teach building beauty amid rubble.
• Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Church, Bethlehem / Rev. Munther Isaac — Pastoral witness and public theology (“Christ in the Rubble”).

Resources mentioned

• They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom — Memoir connected to Ahed’s story.
• Where Olive Trees Weep — Documentary offering first-person stories that mirror much of what the hosts witnessed.

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