The Fallout From This Year’s Samaritan Passover

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20 Nisan 5776

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UPDATES 8:30 pm Israel time:

***Palestinian terror today:

A few minutes ago, at 8:22 pm, two female terrorists stabbed a soldier at a junction on Road 443. One terrorist was shot and killed; the other was captured.

Sirens sounded at 12:49 pm this afternoon for incoming missiles from Gaza–sending thousands of residents of the Eshkol region running to their bomb shelters. Police are still looking for where the missile(s) hit. In the meantime, Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades issued a “final warning” in the last hour that unless the blockade around Gaza is lifted “immediately”, there will be an “explosion” of missiles from Gaza.

Rioting has occurred in Bethany, Yabad, Al-Khader, Issawiya, and Shuafat; Molotov firebombs have been thrown at cars on Road 443 and Pisgat Ze’ev; and “rocks” have crashed into Israelis at numerous locations.

Yesterday saw riots at Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem; rioting in Sair,  Dahiya, Armon, Issawiya, Beit El, and elsewhere; Molotovs on the Husan Bypass Road, at Beitar Illit, and at Nahalin in Gush Etzion; and “rocks” at tens of locations throughout Judea and Samaria.

***It may turn out that today was an historic day in Israel-China relations as the first Chinese plane landed at Ben Gurion airport.

Minister Israel Katz with a Chinese representative at Ben Gurion today.

In the coming months, regular nonstop flights between Beijing and Tel Aviv should begin to pull the two countries closer.

***Police are crowing about “an all-time record” number of Jews on the Temple Mount for Passover.

What a joke.

Apparently, the number has risen from the 250 reported the other day to 1015. 

Sort of.

Actually 371 of the most recent 765 were not permitted to walk around the Mount; they were forced to immediately walk straight from the entrance to the exit.

TODAY’S BLOG:

Samaritan priests carrying Torahs for the Passover celebration.

The Samaritans celebrated Passover on Mt. Gerizim a few days ago. . . and a scandal erupted in the PLO.

Samaritan priests preparing lambs following their sacrifice.

First, some context is in order. 

As you may know, dear reader, the Samaritans date back to the tribes of Ephraim and Menashe–the sons of Joseph. Somehow, while most of their brethren were carted away to Assyria following the Assyrian onslaught in 722 BCE, a group of men living in Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, survived. Over time, these men, their wives, and the families they raised became known as Samaritans.

DNA tests have seemed to confirm the Samaritan version of events which is that the Samaritans who remained in Samaria intermarried with Assyrian women–and the families today trace their lineage to that moment in history.

Ironically, the same DNA tests showing intermarriage illustrate why orthodox Jews reject the Samaritans as co-religionists–and have since the 6th century BCE. And it is a rejection that continues despite the fact that the Samaritans engage in most Jewish ritual practices from circumcision to bar mitzvah to celebrating Shabbat.

As we all know, the Samaritan Pentateuch (Torah) is one of the oldest in the world and differs in some significant ways from the Torah used by Jews.

Fast forward to the present.

There are now only about 760 Samaritans left as their communities continue to dwindle. Those communities are located in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon, the tiny village of Kiryat Luza in the middle of PLO-controlled Shechem (Nablus), and on Mt. Gerizim–the holiest place to Samaritans.

The Samaritans who live in Shechem and on Mt. Gerizim are fully assimilated into Palestinian culture.

It is because of this assimilation that Shechem governor Akram Rajoub, a long-time PLO party member and crony of Mahmoud Abbas, decided to attend the Samaritan Passover celebration a few days ago.

The next day Rajoub was unceremoniously dumped as governor.

For his part, Rajoub didn’t take the sacking quietly, blasting Abbas: “Without warning, the president ordered the sword to my neck, and now I must leave Nablus, which I have served faithfully.”

Apparently, Abbas himself is under extreme heavy public criticism these days because he seems to be prepared to abandon the PLO initiative at the United Nations in favor France-sponsored “peace talks” to take place this summer.

In any case, this year’s Samaritan Passover has been an eventful one.