We reached Deir Al Khatab, south of Nablus, without running into any flying (surprise) checkpoints. We met Ayman ‘Aude at his hardware store in order to advance our interest in erecting a fence around the house at the outskirts of Bourin, towards the illegal settler-colonist outpost of Giv’at Ronen. This is a plan we thought up together and we couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t shaping up. The house is inhabited by an elderly couple who suffer repeated attacks by the settler-colonists of that outpost. Ayman explained: the representative of the PA in Nablus acknowledged the importance of erecting a wall around the house and promised to build a 2-meter high concrete wall, but in actual fact nothing had been done. If building materials – purchased by him – are brought to the site, it will serve as a pretext to cancel the wall. If the wall is built, barbed wire would be placed over it. If not, concrete foundations would be laid over which the barbed wire spirals would be placed.

On our way to the next planned meeting in Bourin, we drove up Grizim Mountain, altitude of 886 meters – overlooking Nablus – in order to clarify a point that remained vague even after we concluded our survey of the blocked maqams: What is the connection of the Sheikh Ghanam maqam to the Samaritan community? According to Muslim tradition, it contains the grave of Ghanam Ibn Ali, native of Bourin, who was a senior functionary in the court of Salah Ad-Din. The drive up there from Bourin village is now out of bounds for Palestinians – albeit unofficially – blocked by soldiers and settler-colonists. If a Bourin villager still wishes to visit the maqam, he must go to Nablus, and from there to the well-groomed Samaritan village and the archeological site run by the West Bank Civil Administration and the Israeli Authority of Nature and Parks, where he must pay entrance fees and visit as a tourist.

This time, during a brief visit and talk with the guide at the museum of the Samaritan community whose history and tradition are fascinating, the matter was cleared up: the Samaritan pilgrimage is to nearby “Isaac’s Altar”. Since the latter is invisible, they seem to be headed for the Muslim maqam Sheikh Ghanam which is of no interest to them as Jews. The Samaritans are a stream of Jewry that branched off general Judaism following King Solomon’s reign, according to their tradition. A repeated glance at the photo shows the Samaritans turned in the nearly opposite of the maqam rising above them.

We reached Bourin and the family of Doha and Samir Moussa whose relatives inhabit all the villages around Jabal (Mount) Salman, its peak topped by the Jewish settler-colony of Yitzhar.

Our hosts told us about the burning of cars in ‘Urif village last Friday night, at the home of a relative of theirs. We came out with them shortly before the end of our shift, intending to visit the said relative along with them in ‘Urif. The road between the villages surrounds Jabal Salman topped by Yitzhar settler-colony (the maqam is said to contain the remains of Salman Al Farsi) and passes from Bourin to Madame village, from their to ‘Asira Al Qabaliya and from there to ‘Urif. The entrance to ‘Asira was blocked by soldiers, their weapons drawn, who instructed us to turn back:

We returned to Bourin:
The football field immediately adjacent served the children and youths of Bourin, as we heard from a girl of the family who just matriculated, and joined us. It used to be the playground of her childhood, and now it has been declared out-of-bounds (Orly Noy wrote about the takeover of this yard at “Local Call” blog, about 2 months ago).

The schoolyard with its ancient cypress trees closely overlooks the Jewish settler-colony of Yitzhar and its outposts.

The exit from Madama village was blocked. Three armed soldiers demanded we turn back. A soldier saw me taking photos and demanded I delete them. He did not check whether I followed his orders. Raed, our wonderful driver and partner, convinced the soldiers to let us travel Road 60 so that “we don’t miss our train”.