A group of local workers are finalizing the preparations for the ceremony of the Israeli inauguration of an archeological site on Thursday on the top of Jerzim mountain in the West Bank city of Nablus amid Palestinian and Samaritans anger.

One of the workers, who blocked journalists' entrance to the site on the top of the mountain, said "The cite is closed and no one is permitted to enter. Today senior Israeli officials and ministers are coming to inaugurate the site as an Israeli archeological and tourist garden."

The mountain's peak, which has a height of 881 meter above the sea level, contains remains of a Roman Temple, a Byzantine Church and an Islamic Castle built by the Leader Salah al-Din. On the top of the mountain, an originally Jewish-Palestinian sect, called Samaritan, has been living for ages.

Samaritans consecrate the mountain's peak, which is basically part of the areas (C) in the West Bank under the full Israeli security and administrative control. In accordance to 1993 Oslo peace accords signed between Israel and the Palestinians, the West Bank area was divided into areas A, B and C.

The Samaritan, who believes in the prophet Moses of the Jews and in the Jewish holy book of Torah, oppose Israel's plans to turn the mountain's peak from a religious holy place into a tourism site for Jewish visitors. They believe that the top of the mountain is the holiest site in the world.

"For us, the top of the mountain is the holiest site in the world. It's the forth holiest spot in Judaism, where we carry out pilgrimage thrice a year. The site had been mentioned 13 times in the Torah and it is a basic term in the religion of the Samaritans, " Samaritans Rabi Hosni Samiri told Xinhua.

Looking with pain at the dome of the temple on the top of the mountain, Samiri said "We would never allow dirtying the mountain. It is our gate to heaven and it is the place of connecting with God and our place for prayers and worshipping," adding that "the land of the mountain was a gift from Jordan."

"Changing the site minimizes its religious values, therefore this would change the views of the coming generations and the place won't be anymore a holy and religious site for them, then they would see it as a tourists site only," said the Rabi, adding "the Jews planning to bury holy site of Samaritans."

Anyone stands on the top of Mount Gerizim can explore the city of Nablus, which is located between this mount and the mount of Ibal. Constructions in a nearby Jewish settlement can also be clearly seen from the top, where mountains of Jerusalem and northern Israel can be seen.

Uraib Samiri, a Samaritan woman, expresses anger of the Israeli decision to inaugurate the tourists garden as an archeological garden. "I'm against all operations of digging in the holy site as it happened before, where all the people of the sect are religiously tied to this mountain," she told Xinhua.

Another Samaritan woman tried to reach the site, but she wasn't allowed, where she told Xinhua "As I was with my kids and reached the site, the guards closed the gate to the temple and prevented us from going there. It is our holy site and we have the right of worshipping there any time to contact God."

According to the Palestinian ministry of tourism and archeology, the site of Mount Gerizim goes back the Bronze Age, where the remains of an old temple were explored under the site and was surrounded by several rooms used later in the history by the Greeks.

Awni Shawamreh, director of registering archeological sites in the Palestinian ministry told Xinhua that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) rejects the Israeli plan, adding "the site was nominated with 20 other sites to be included in the world's legacy list of UNESCO.

The West Bank city of Bethlehem had celebrated accepting it and the Church of Nativity to be in the world's legacy list of UNESCO. Shawamreh said that "no state has the right to nominate the site on Mount Gerizim except the ministry of tourism and archeology."

"I believe that Israel carried out its plan of turning Mount Gerizim into an archeological garden after UNESCO decided to include Bethlehem in the word's legacy list," said Shawamreh, adding "The plan was to block a UNESCO future add of the site in the world's list of legacy."

He revealed that his ministry will sue Israel in all local and international legal institutions and courts "to unveil its practices of settlement expansion that aim at erasing the Palestinian history from the Palestinian memory and Obliterate the national Palestinian identity."