Cultural awareness is a quality all good translators have. Anyone who has ever been submerged in two or more completely different languages understands that there is more to language than just words: There is culture, history, legacy, tradition, and other subtleties that make up both the textual and sub or paratextual meaning behind the words being conveyed.

Tolerance is a quality all good, or at least, rational and intellectually honest people have. Among other things, tolerance means, “I may not understand you nor share your views, beliefs, or traditions, but I’m willing to coexist with you and leave you be.” But every now and again someone comes along and goes the extra mile; their message is not one of tolerance but of true acceptance and understanding. This extra mile requires, among other things, cultural awareness.

That’s why this story published in the New York Times last week caught my eye. In the midst of the violent and unfortunate relationship between Israelis and Palestinians, George Khoury, a 20 year-old Palestinian law student, was killed because his killers thought he was Jewish. The conflict between Palestine and Israel is known to everyone and it’s not something I wish to comment on here, what’s amazing about this story and separates it from other “violence in the middle East” stories is how George’s father, Elias, decided to cope with his son’s tragic death: He financed the translation into Arabic of the autobiography of Amoz Oz, Israel’s most prominent author. Why did he do this you might wonder, to help bridge the gap between Israeli and Palestinian culture. Imagine that: acceptance and understanding as a means for peace… if only more world leaders would follow suit!

When asked about his decision, Eli told the New York Times he chose this book because it, “tells the history of the rebirth of the Jewish people. [...] We can learn from it how a people like the Jewish people emerged from the tragedy of the Holocaust and were able to reorganize themselves and build their country and become an independent people. If we can’t learn from that, we will not be able to do anything for our independence.” Ironically, these words were uttered by a man who not only lost his son to Palestinians, but who’s also seen his family’s lands confiscated by Israel “for security purposes,” after his father died in a Palestinian attack against Israel.

According to Eli, despite the fact that the book is not specifically about coexistence, he chose it because it tells the story of Jewish refugees from Europe trying to find their way. And as Mr. Oz (who has come to know Eli and his family) puts it, “Weren’t both sides of the conflict totally immersed in their own tragedies, each one oblivious to, or even antagonistic toward, the narrative of the other? […] Isn’t this inability to imagine the lives of the ‘other’ at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?”

I honestly find Eli’s action admirable, if ever faced with such tragedy, I can only hope I can be half the person Eli is. His attempt to bridge a cultural gap in hopes that two opposing sides can learn to understand and accept each other is an example many a political leader should follow.