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Amona residents accept government offer, averting potential clash
Amona residents yesterday accepted a government offer to leave their homes peacefully and be re-housed nearby, averting the prospect of a potentially violent evacuation later this month.
Residents said that they were prepared “to give a chance to the proposal” but that “we will continue standing guard and check whether the state meets its commitment,” and are prepared to “renew the struggle” if the state “doesn’t meet its commitments”.
The plan, which was proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Naftali Bennett, will see 24 of Amona’s 40 families re-housed on an adjacent plot, classified as “absentee” property, abandoned by their landlords before or during Israel’s capture of the West Bank in 1967 and whose identities are unknown. The remainder will be housed in the nearby Ofra settlement until a permanent solution is found.
A confrontation with security forces appeared likely after residents last week rejected an original government proposal, which sought to re-house just half the number specified in yesterday’s agreement on adjacent land. In addition, yesterday’s proposal offers more stringent legal guarantees that the agreement will be implemented.
The government is also set to request a 30-day extension to the High Court ruling which mandated that Amona, built illegally on privately owned Palestinian land, must be evacuated by 25 December.
A recent coalition-spearheaded legislation to retroactively legalise West Bank homes with a similar status excluded Amona after the coalition Kulanu Party refused to back a law opposing a specific court order.
Likud MK Yehuda Glick praised the “brave decision” of Amona residents in their “respectful struggle,” while Jewish Home MK Betzalel Smotrich, who has taken up the cause of Amona, said that thanks to the residents “the settlements will continue to grow and strengthen”.
Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni said that while it is good violence was avoided, “it’s unfortunate that the threat of violence works”. Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg branded the agreement “capitulation”.