Tolan draws two competitive points of view together in Bashir's friendship with Dalia. First of all, Dalia's kindness and hospitality wins Bashir over. To Bashir, Jews were not the kind of people who would invite in a Palestinian Arab. In other words, he doesn't really know very many Jews at all. The implication is that Jewish people are probably also very scared of Arab people, as Bashir is fearful of the Jews during his visit to Al-Ramla.
Here are the two points of view: Bashir's family worked hard for their life in Al-Ramla. His entrepreneurial father built their home (where Dalia's family now lives) and provided for them with his small cinema. Then, without warning or discussion, violent Israeli terrorists forced the Arabs out of Al-Ramla, and the house was forever lost. When Dalia's family moved in, Bashir's opinion is that they are still living in his home. (This parallels the Arab opinion of the Israeli conflict itself).
Dalia's point of view is not that the Jews are heroes and that the Israelite state is good. She actually believes Bashir. The problem is that those Israelite terrorists were probably Zionists, and Dalia's family is from the Diaspora. Their family was also removed from Palestine, but a lot longer ago. They have been living in Bulgaria, where they'd have been happy to stay forever, but unfortunately, the Jewish Holocaust drove them back to Israel, not because they wanted to live in Israel, but because there was finally an offer made to give the Jewish people a permanent home, in part as a response to the horrific genocide of the Holocaust.
In other words, their opinions are equal and opposite, but they don't actually disagree with each other. Both stories are true, but the truth is that each person has enough at stake that they will defend their point of view. For Bashir and Dalia, that doesn't prevent them from working together for the future of Al-Ramla, and it doesn't come between them. Their friendship is a testament to the potential peace that could come to Israel, if only the people could learn to hold two competing points of view in tension. The school is the primary symbol for hope, because the children will be integrated, meaning the two people groups might not be so mystified and horrified by each other.
