The purpose of their trip was to learn about the political and religious history of the area, and to experience first-hand a region that gets world attention and is important to Christians, Jews and Muslims.

The delegation from Westtown stayed with local Palestinian families, which allowed students and staff to get a real sense of everyday life and culture in the West Bank.  As a result, they established relationships between trip participants and citizens of Palestine and Israel.  Particular focus was on building personal and institutional relationships between Westtown and Ramallah Friends School.

Siraj’s efforts to bring the participants closer to people at the community level enabled the members of the group to deepen their familiarity with and understanding of community-level “grass-roots” work to promote nonviolent methods of addressing injustice and promoting peace and coexistence.