With cement walls and electric fences making a comeback, with the word “Muslims” becoming synonymous with terrorists, with racism enjoying a revival, the recommendation of the Talmud-era sage Hillel the Elder takes on new meaning: “In a place where there are no humans, one must strive to be human” (Pirkei Avit 2:5). It is harder, still, to be a decent human being — in Yiddish, a “mensch” — in a fraught relationship between occupiers and the occupied. Despite the abundance of vitriol injected into the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians by those at the apex of Palestinian and Israeli power, however, there are those who refuse to abandon their humanity.

One such person is Mohammed Jamal, from the West Bank village of Lubban al-Sharqiya, south of Nablus, who rushed to save the victims of a fatal bus crash Jan. 27 outside his house on a rainy winter night. Jamal and his family were the first to help the surviving Jewish passengers, who were on their way to a nearby settlement. In the days that followed, Israeli officers from the Central Command and Civil Administration called the Jamal family to express their gratitude. Capt. Sivan Raviv, the medical officer from the Binyamin Division who oversaw the rescue efforts, said that Jamal and his family arrived at the scene in their pajamas and carrying flashlights. “They didn’t stop to think or consider,” the officer said. “All they saw was the need to save lives.”

Jamal remarked to Israeli television, “When you see an injured person who needs help, you want to help and you must help.” His words brought to mind the image of the Israeli soldier Elor Azaria, who shot and killed a wounded Palestinian assailant last March in Hebron. Too bad Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took the trouble to call the soldier’s family to comfort them at the time, could not find the time to say a few words, or even send a tweet, praising the Palestinian family that came to the rescue of injured Israeli settlers. Think how great it would have been if Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, who attended Azaria’s court martial to express support for the soldier, had invited the Jamal family to his office to shake their hands. He even could have awarded them a medal, used to commemorate and praise a special act, but also to make an educational gesture. Such gestures remind us of the values behind the deeds and decisions of remarkable individuals. It is probably time that Israel established a “Medal of Fraternity” or a “Medal of the Olive Branch” to celebrate people like Jamal.

That said, Jamal is not alone. Palestinian civilians have on numerous occasions extricated Israeli civilians and soldiers who unwittingly entered territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and found themselves surrounded by an angry mob. Three years ago, Palestinian peace activists prevented the lynching of a group of young, radical right-wing Israelis, so-called hilltop youth, from the Esh Kodesh settlement, who entered a Palestinian village to carry out a violent hate crime. The activists and local Palestinian leaders alerted Israeli and Palestinian security forces and called them to come and extricate the besieged Israeli youths. According to PA data, in 2015 it handed over 634 Israeli citizens to Israeli authorities who entered Palestinian villages in the West Bank whether by mistake or for nefarious purposes.