In the small village of Beit Sefafa, in a country torn with conflict and division between the Arabs and Israelis..... you will find a lovely Palestinian family that invites people of varying nations, cultures and religious backgrounds to pick olives, side by side, for a day.
Beit Sefafa, an Arab village, is in the south eastern part of Jerusalem on the outskirts of Bethlehem. In the wake of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the neighborhood was divided - with half in no man's land and the other half in the Jordanian-occupied West Bank. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, the two parts of Beit Safafa were reunited.
What you might not typically find united, in this village, are Arabs, Israelis, and Americans working side by side as a symbol of peace. Yet, that is exactly what happened, this last November, when nine of us BYU-Hawaii students and our Professor participated in a service project with PeacePlayers International, to pick olives, at the Elayan home.
After a day of picking olives I found that it was us the students who had been served in a gesture of peace. While, we did pick olives this family opened their hearts and their home to all of us. They not only graciously prepared amazingly-delectable food, but they sat together around the table sharing their private lives with us.
On this day, the olive branch, a symbol of peace, was never more vivid and alive in our hearts and in our minds.
