Jewish Zionist narrative has “falsified history and the holy scriptures” for its own goals - PA daily op-ed

Excerpt of an op-ed by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily

Headline: “Samaritan Palestinians – your holiday is love and your Sukkah is the homeland”

“The Samaritans are an authentic part of the Palestinian people and living witnesses to the Palestinian truth and to the falseness of the Jewish Zionist narrative and the erring of its propagandists and pioneers, as it is a colonialist political project that has distorted faith, falsified history and the holy scriptures, and mobilized them in order to achieve its goals.”

Samaritans – A small ethno-religious group residing primarily in Holon (in Israel) and in the Samaritan village Kiryat Luza (near Nablus in the West Bank). The Samaritans claim ancestry from the ancient Israelites and adhere to the religious law of Samaritanism. While Samaritanism is closely related to Judaism, there are some fundamental differences. Samaritans refer to the Bible as their sole religious scripture, do not celebrate any Jewish festival that took place after the writing of the Bible (i.e., Channukah, Purim), and consider Mt. Gerizim near Nablus their holiest place (believing this is where Abraham bound Isaac and God instructed them to build the Temple), as opposed to Jews who consider Mt. Moriah (the Temple Mount) in Jerusalem their holiest place. No Jewish community today recognizes the Samaritans as an expression of Judaism, and for Samaritans to wed Jewish partners in a traditional ceremony they are required to undergo a full conversion to Judaism. The Samaritan community numbers roughly 800 members today.