Yousuf al-Tif (The Samaritan):
Yousuf al-Tif, who was born to a Samaritan Palestinian family, was born on April 22, 1940 in
Nablus. He received his elementary education at Alkhaldiah School. Then, he received his
primary education at Al-Jaheth School, ‘Amr ibn ‘As School, and at Al Gazaliyeh School.
Finally, he received his secondary education at Salahiya School and graduated from it in 1961.
He was accepted at an institute for the study of Samaritan religion in Nablus and studied
theology for three years. He learned biblical Hebrew, the Torah, and first five books of the Old
Testament. He moved with his family to live in Mount Gerizim (also known as Mount et-Tor) in
1987 due to its holiness to the Samaritans.
In 1964, Al-Tif worked at Nablus Post Office in the Technical Support Department. He became
the General Manager of the Technical Support Department at Nablus Post Office. In 1983, he
succeeded in bringing to the city the Automated Mail, which was a state-of-art in the field of
postal services back then.
Al-Tif was under great pressure by the Zionist military governor. He was summoned to the
military governor’s office many times and was forced to move his workplace from Nablus to
Ramallah upon an arbitrary decision. As a result, he had to endure the sufferings and pains of
heading from where he lives just to manage to reach his workplace in Ramallah. To increase the
pressure on him, the military governor issued a decision to deduct a percentage of his salary
allowance. Fortunately, he managed to defeat all the hardships and obstacles that were placed by
the military governor. He retired in 1995; however, the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat
hired him, two months after retirement, as the manager of the Control Inspections Department of
the Telecommunication companies in northern governorates of the West Bank. Five years later,
he announced his retirement.
Currently, he devotes his time to religious works for Samaritans, writes articles about the
Samaritans calling for strengthening the relationship with Muslims and participates in many
national conferences, workshops, and symposiums.
