Outpost leaders threaten to ‘block bulldozers with our bodies’; Netanyahu says state will request 30-day extension on demolition deadline
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday the state would request a month-long extension on the deadline to evacuate the Amona settlement outpost while working to find a solution, as residents warned they would block the imminent evacuation with their bodies.
“We are working around the clock to find a responsible solution that is acceptable to everyone,” Netanyahu said at Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting, “and I expect all ministers and Knesset members to respect it.”
His call came after an Amona resident sent him a letter warning that they would physically block an attempted evacuation.
“In the case that heavy machinery arrives to remove us from the mountain, we and our children will block the bulldozers with our bodies,” said the letter sent to Netanyahu on Thursday and released to the public Saturday night. “We are calling on all our supporters to join the struggle.”
A meeting between Netanyahu and Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennet — whose party is pushing to cancel to demolition — ended without resolution on Saturday night, as the two tried to reach a compromise. A Jewish Home source told The Times of Israel that a further meeting — planned for Sunday — would not take place.
After over a decade of legal wrangling, the High Court of Justice ruled in 2014 that the Amona outpost, near Ramallah, which was founded in 1996 and is home to some 40 families, was built on privately-owned Palestinian land and ordered it razed by December 25.
Netanyahu told ministers the state will petition the High Court of Justice for a 30-day deferral of the deadline for the evacuation in order to properly prepare alternative housing.
The issue has galvanized pro-settlement politicians who have sought legislative ways to circumvent the court’s decision. But proposals to grant the state the ability to seize the private land for Amona residents have been met with vociferous opposition from officials and political leaders.
The controversial “Regulation Bill” — which would prevent settlements built on private land from being demolished if they were built with state assistance — is due to face its first Knesset reading on Monday but disagreement remains over a clause to retroactively include Amona
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has proposed a compromise wherein the residents of Amona would temporarily move into three plots of land nearby that is administered by Israel’s Custodian for Absentees’ Property. They would live there while their new homes are completed in another settlement in the northern West Bank.
But Amona residents have dismissed the offer, writing in their letter to the prime minster that it would involve a huge waste of state funds and still force them to leave their homes.
“It is simply absurd that the State of Israel is willing to spend fifty million shekels to move Amona’s residents to a nearby hill where they will only be allowed to remain for eight months, after which the government will spend more money on expelling them again,” they wrote.
Speaking on Israel Radio Sunday morning, head of the Campaign for Amona Avicahi Baron, said the deal was just a delaying tactic and that residents would oppose the move with the same force as they would the complete destruction of the settlement.
“We are talking about kicking us out, uprooting us.” he said. “We will stand with our bodies in a passive protest to this deal. We don’t plan to use violent but yes we will prevent it with our bodies.”
Currently, Israeli security forces are preparing for the possibility of violent clashes to accompany the outpost’s demolition.
Last Monday, some 120 rabbis, who identify with the national religious camp called for “all who are able” to come to Amona and “vigorously protest the destruction of the settlement, with passive resistance and without violence.”
That call came a day before dozens of Israeli youths burned tires and blocked a major West Bank highway in protest of the planned demolition.
In 2006, over 220 people were injured in clashes with security forces during the destruction of numerous homes in the outpost.
To prevent a repeat scenario, Israeli forces — soldiers, border guards, and uniformed and undercover police officers — will likely try to keep as many people away as possible with the area set to be declared a “closed military zone,” in the days running up to the December 35 deadline.
As reported by The Times of Israel