"The Optimists" is the story of a Palestinian chemist from the village of Sur Baher near Jerusalem and the story of a Kibbutz Ketura in the Arava desert in southern Israel. It is the story of people who represent an alternative path to that of current Israeli society as well as to the Palestinian society. The decision to produce the film was sparked by the decision of a Palestinian Chemist Dr. Tariq Abu Hammad to leave the East Jerusalem village in which he resides, and relocate with his family to Kibbutz Ketura in the southern Arava, in order to become the Academic Director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.

The institute brings together Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and others in an academic program that teaches, “Nature knows no borders”.  The story of the Palestinian, who seeks to advance peace in the Middle East, develops into the story of the founders of the kibbutz who emigrated from the United States swearing to fix the world and the State of Israel. They have one more dream that they want to fulfil – to make Israel more pluralistic,

more open to peace and social justice in the spirit of Tikkun Olam ("Repairing the World").