Qalqilyah is an unlikely site for Israeli-Palestinian cooperation -- a Palestinian town in the West Bank, it's home to the wall Israel built to keep out Palestinian attacks. But it's now also home to a growing strawberry fields planted by Israelis and Palestinians working together, World Focus' Arieh O'Sullivan reported.
Backed by international donors and the Peres Center for Peace, the purpose of the strawberry fields is to boost the Palestinian economy, with Israeli farming experts providing irrigation equipment and training, O'Sullivan said.
"We hope that the strawberry crop can be identified as a peace product that was grown by cross-border activity," said Oren Blonder, a project manager at the Peres Center for Peace.
The plan is to market the strawberries in Europe for Christmas and to sell them to Ben & Jerry's, O'Sullivan reported.
The visit by Israeli agricultural trainers wasn't entirely without politics, as it was monitored by Palestinian security forces. However, both sides seemed to have good intentions.
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"Our hope here is that if this situation will continue, that Qalqilyah will stop being the capital of terrorism and bombing it was before and will become a capital of strawberries," Lt. Gal Levant, an Israeli liaison officer, said.
