There are other projects that use the Everest as a meeting place. The Center for Individual Recovery and Reconciliation—founded by an Israeli, a Palestinian, and an American—organizes social meetings between Israelis, Palestinians, and others to foster better understanding of one another and, as a result, inspire social and business projects. C.I.R.R. has sponsored a women's empowerment initiative and connected a Palestinian artisan with an American market for embroidery work.

"We're not trying to reach a political solution; we're just trying to let people meet each other as human beings and share stories, which becomes fertile ground for initiating projects," says Danny Gal, the Tel Aviv coordinator of C.I.R.R. "I can't think of a good substitute for the Everest. We chose it for the accessibility, but it's also a great place in terms of its warm and playful atmosphere. I hope we will be able to persuade authorities to open a special gate just for the Everest."

Diabat, the Israeli grad student, says his research with the Palestinian hydrologist al-Khateeb would have been made much more difficult without the Everest, potentially affecting water safety in the region.

Two and a half years ago, the Transboundary Stream Restoration Project—a joint research effort of the Israeli Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and the Palestinian Water and Environmental Development Organization—began tracking the pollution sources, content, concentrations, and flow in the Alexander Stream, which runs through both Israeli and Palestinian territory. If it isn't cleaned up, the pollution could contaminate irrigation systems, fish farms, and drinking water from the West Bank town of Nablus to the Mediterranean Sea. To date, researchers have collected more than 700 samples from various points along the waterway.

Diabat believes the study would have faltered without al-Khateeb's semimonthly handoffs of West Bank water samples. (Mail takes too long; the integrity of samples becomes compromised.) Since al-Khateeb has a long-term permit to leave Bethlehem, the two scientists can meet, for now, at the Everest, sharing scientific discourse over plates of hummus and lamb kebab before Diabat shuttles the samples back to his lab.

Of course, the restaurant's owners will be hardest hit by the end of the Everest era. Makram el-Arja's grandfather built the Everest with a business partner in 1944. The first West Bank hotel to offer a restaurant and party rooms, it became a favorite summer destination for families from all over the Middle East, hosting Jordanian kings Abdullah I and Hussein, among others.

During the Everest's heyday in the 1990s, its three seating areas, which can accommodate 2,000 diners, were packed, and the 20 rooms in its hotel were invariably full. "Then, we worked 24 hours," el-Arja says. Today, the hotel tends to operate at less than half its capacity.

On a recent visit to the restaurant, the guests in the dining room number in the single digits—including one waiting alone for a business contact. The warmth has not diminished. New visitors are greeted by one of el-Arja's three brothers, Bashir, who brings thin slices of layer cake and small glasses of Arab coffee. But there is nothing close to hustle and bustle. The quiet is broken only by clinking glasses and the muffled voices of two women speaking Arabic, flanked by two toddlers clinging to their skirts. "Those are my boys," Bashir says proudly, taking one on his lap.

They will not grow up at the Everest. Bashir plans to relocate his family to California, where he will study real estate. (Bashir and family end up moving one month later.) Eventually, the remaining members of the extended family will join Bashir in America or head to Egypt or Chile, where relatives own textile and iron factories. Only el-Arja and his family will stay behind, most likely shuttering the restaurant and hotel and renting out the building.

"Step by step, our business will finish," Bashir says. When asked if he minds being quoted, he adds, "It doesn't matter if I'm speaking or not. Is anyone listening?"