Samaritan Museum Mount Grizim

The Samaritan village on Mount Grizim recently opened a new museum that showcases the history and culture of this unique community. Now numbering just 740 people the Samaritan community has withstood millennia of invasions, forced conversions and dispersal.

Samaritan Temple on Mount Grizim

Part of the ancient Israelite tribes, the Samaritans built their temple on Mount Grizim when King Solomon in Judea was building the temple in Jerusalem. This theological split has separated them from the Jews ever since, However they still revere the five books of Moses, and read their scrolls in the ancient Hebrew script.

Mount Grizim is a mountain next to Nablus and the Samaritans once numbered millions in the region. The modern status is unique. They were granted Israeli citizenship after the conquest of the West Bank in 1967, continue to hold Jordanian citizenship, and also hold ID cards from the Palestinian Authority.

Priest Husney Cohen

The new Museum is the culmination of a dream by Priest, Husney Cohen, 3rd in line for the Priest's position. Husney presides at the museum and provides guests with an amazing presentation, including a n overview of the Samaritan's complex genealogical charts with which they trace their priestly lineage back to Adam.

The weekly Nablus Tour offered by Green Olive tours visits the Samaritan village and meets with Priest Husney Cohen.

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Route 443 Develops

Click here for more information about Israel's segregated roads.

Palestinian road snaking through a tunnel under route 443

The drive along route 443 became a little more interesting during the past month. Until recently Palestinian were barred from the road and could only traverse it through tunnels underneath. However the Israeli high court decreed in January that segregated roads for Palestinians and Israelis were unlawful, even by Israeli law.

Since then some of the hitherto closed side roads have been opened up to route 443 for limited use by Palestinian traffic. Several new checkpoints have been built, complete with concrete watchtowers and sophisticated hi-tec steel barriers.

Of course the use of limited stretches of route 443 by Palestinians merely creates some short cuts between villages, and does little to facilitate regional transportation since the direct road to Ramallah remains closed, and Palestinians are forbidden to cross the checkpoint into Jerusalem even if they have a valid permit. To enter Jerusalem they are required first to travel to Ramallah via back roads, cross the city, and enter Jerusalem via Kalandia Checkpoint - adding 1-3 hours to the journey depending on the checkpoint bottleneck.

In the meanwhile route 443 has become a favoured short cut to Jerusalem for many Israelis. The increased traffic has spawned an interesting little business. Just south of the village of Tira a new roadside cafe has made an appearance during May.

I popped in for a cup of coffee this morning and had a chat with the owner, Guy, who is from the nearby Jewish settlement of Beit Horon, named after the biblical community. The settlement was established in 1977 with a mix of secular and religious families, now numbering over 600 people.

Customers can sit a few meters from the razor-wire fence viewing the Palestinian village on the distant hilltop

Guy has become something of a local entrepreneur. After observing the new 4-lane boulevard being built off route 443 he approached the authorities and received a lease on a small plot of land at the junction of the two roads. Smart man.

He bought a kitchen/trailer, and with a small generator, a few tables, chairs and sun-umbrellas he created an instant cafe right next to the fence with its 3 rolls of razor-wire to keep out Arabs.

I sampled a breakfast of Shashuka, a local specialty which Guy creates in gourmet style. Eggs are cooked in a pan, embedded in a delicious stew of fresh tomatoes, onion and garlic, lightly spiced. The concoction is placed on a whole-wheat roll with fresh basil. Delicious!

However the setting is bizarre. Literally 200 meters from the separation barrier with additional fencing and razor-wire to create a kind of no-mans land next to the outdoor cafe and boulevard. The other side of the fence is home to thousands of Palestinians living in Tira and beyond. The new road will service the new neighborhood of Gvat Ze'ev, a settlement that stretches out from Jerusalem deep into the West Bank.

During a quiet moment Guy relaxes with me in the shade, nods and smiles serenely when I gently mention the obvious madness of this intermingling of Israelis and Palestinians while gerrymandering the fencing to keep the peoples apart. The mother of one of my daughter's friends unexpectedly drives up for a coffee, and when I query her about the fence she says, "Thank God it's there. we don't need Arabs on this side"  . . . . . .

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Tourism Researcher Seeks People

Contact Dorina Maria Buda

The researcher: My name is Dorina Maria Buda, I am from Romania, currently living and studying in Hamilton, New Zealand. I am working towards my doctoral degree at Waikato University, Programmes for Geography and Tourism. My passion for tourism as well as my interest for Jordan and Jerusalem has driven me to carry out this research project on tourism in Jordan and Jerusalem. I am interested to find out why people choose to visit these places and also how they feel about the political situation in the region.

 The project: Thank you very much for taking the time to consider getting involved in my doctoral research project. Tourism is a complex, dynamic, ever-changing phenomenon with ramifications in numerous disciplines. The connection between tourism and political situation represents a key point of this research project. The effects of political instability within a region, or even a country can be a two-edged sword; on the one hand it can deter tourists from visiting the country and the whole region altogether or, on the other hand it can entice some tourists to visit what it is perceived or portrayed as a politically unstable country or a war-torn region.

 The area: The political situation in the Middle Eastern region seems complicated. The country Jordan and the city of Jerusalem offer a good position to view and analyse the political environment and the impacts on international tourist motivation to visit Jordan and Jerusalem. I am interested in the connection between politics and tourism in Jordan and the city of Jerusalem as well the way this impacts tourists’ motivations to travel to these places.

Your involvement: In order to gain an in-depth understanding of the relationship between tourism and political instability this study includes several methods, which are totally voluntary, organized in 3 stages. First stage is our initial semi-structured interview that will feel like informal chats about your decision to travel to these places and your experience visiting them. At the end the initial interview you will be invited to take part in stage two of this research, which I will explain to you in details and is completely voluntary. In stage 2 I plan to use two methods that are relatively new: diary – interview and photograph & video interpretation. They will give me a new, more imaginative way of understanding not only the way you see places, but also the relationship between tourists and places and the possible link with political instability.

If you agree to further participate in my research, for stage 2 you will be given a small diary notebook that you can use to write down notes about anything and everything that crosses your mind, your heart when you see a certain place while on your trip in Jordan and/or Jerusalem. Diary entries can be as long or as short as you want, and can be taken during the tour, at the end of the tour or even at the end of the day.

For the photo & video interpretation part I am kindly asking you to provide me with as many pictures as you want and write a caption for each picture illustrating the reason you considered important, interesting, useful, funny to take that picture. If needed, I can provide you with a digital photo camera. Making one or more short videos of places, spaces and sites that you consider important or illustrative for the connection between tourism and the political situation in the region is also very useful.

The third and final stage of your involvement will consist of a follow-up friendly chat about further reflections you might have on this research project. This will be organized at the end of stage two in a place that suits you (e.g. a café in town, lobby of a hotel) and will not last longer than 30 minutes.
You can decide to participate in any or all of the 3 stages of this project.

How do I contact you? 
If you decide to participate you can contact me on +64 21 128 4001, or at dorinab@waikato.ac.nz or dorina.buda@gmail.com and can set up a meeting while in Jordan, Tel Aviv or Jerusalem between 11thof July to 30th of October. I will be in Tel Aviv from 12th – 16th of July, Jerusalem from 16th – 21st July, Amman and different sites in Jordan 21st July – 30th October. If you have already been to the area and are willing to share your experience with me we can even organise an on-line meeting using such software as gchat from gmail, yahoo messenger, or skype.

What are my rights as a participant?
As a participant have the right to:
·      decline to participate;
·      decline to answer any particular question (in case of interviews); decline to provide any photograph or use the diary (in case of photo, video and written diaries)
·      ask for the audio-recorder to be turned off at any time;
·      end the interview at any time
·      withdraw from the study up until three weeks after participating in the research and have the photographs and diary sent back;
·      ask any questions about the study at any time during participation; and
·      ask for the erasure of any materials you do not wish to be used in any reports of this study.

 What about confidentiality?
The interviews, photographs and diaries that you might provide will be audio-recorded and notes will be taken during the interview. You have the right to ask to have the recording turned off whenever you decide and you may also end the interview at any time. If you wish so you will be sent a copy of the interview notes, and you will have the opportunity to make corrections or request the erasure of any materials you do not wish to be used. The information you provide will be kept confidentially in a locked facility or in a password protected file on my computer up to five years upon completion of my research.

 What will my information be used for? The main use of the information you provide will help me towards my doctoral thesis, which upon completion will publicly be available on Internet. The data may also be used for articles, book chapters, published and unpublished work and presentations. Unless you have given explicit permission to do so, personal names or any other information which would serve to identify you as an informant will not be included in this research or in any future publication or reports resulting from this project.

This research project has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Any questions about the ethical conduct of this research may be sent to the Secretary of the Committee, email fass-ethics@waikato.ac.nz, postal address, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Te Kura Kete Aronui, University of Waikato, Te Whare Wananga o Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 3240. 

Once again I thank you for taking the time to find out more about my doctoral research. I am at your disposal for any questions you might have.

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