Last week Israeli residents from the Gush Etzion area commemorated a Palestinian fellow employee who had died a month ago from a brain hemorrhage at age 25.
Shadi Assad, who lived in the small village of Khallet Sakariya, located between the Israeli settlements of Alon Shevut and Rosh Tzurim in the Gush Etzion region, worked for the past five years as cleaner at the restaurant adjacent to the Gush Etzion Winery.
His colleagues decided to plant a tree in his memory, and chose an olive tree, which is so often featured in stories about clashes between Jews and Arabs in Judea and Samaria. Alongside the olive tree, they erected a tombstone with inscriptions in Hebrew and Arabic.
After the ceremony, which was also attended by rabbis from the area, including Rabbi Riskin of Efrat, one winery employee wrote: “I don’t know what peace would be like and how to bring it, but I know that a few hours ago I experienced a moment of peace. I feel the crazy complexity, the anger – but also neighborly and humane feelings.”