BICOM

Israel’s High Court agreed to a government request to delay the evacuation of the Amona outpost in the West Bank for 45 days.

Yesterday’s ruling extends the deadline, originally set for 25 December, to evacuate Amona’s residents to 8 February next year. The ruling states that this is the “last, final extension” regardless of “whether an arrangement [with Amona residents for an alternative location] is reached or not” by the new deadline.

The ruling appeared to criticise the government and questioned why alternative housing had been secured for only a portion of Amona’s residents, saying “it is unclear why similar solutions were not available to the rest of the village’s residents”.

The ruling was followed by the announcement from Amona residents, at the court’s request, to agree “to a peaceful evacuation without conflict or resistance”.

The court had originally ruled that Amona residents must be evicted by 25 December, as the outpost was built illegally on private Palestinian land. But the government reached an agreement with the residents last weekend that averted the prospect of a confrontation with Police and security forces.

The agreement states that 24 of Amona’s 40 families will be re-housed on an adjacent plot, known as “Parcel 38,” which is 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 temporarily in the nearby Ofra settlement.

Israeli NGO Yesh Din, which submitted the original petition for Amona’s evacuation, is contesting the re-location to “Parcel 38,” saying it has proof that the plot is not “absentee property” and it has identified the actual landowners. In a statement yesterday, Yesh Din said it will “continue to act to ensure that the extension… will not be used to find new ways to avoid having to return the lands to their rightful owner”.