National Post (National Edition)
EXPULSION of the SETTLERS
CLASHES AS ISRAEL REMOVES SYMBOL OF JEWISH SETTLER DEFIANCE
AMONA, WEST BANK •Thousands of police on Wednesday surrounded a Jewish settlement in the West Bank deemed illegal by the Israeli high court and began dragging angry residents, sputtering curses and prayers, out of their mobile homes.
After years of delay, the evacuation of the hard-line Amona settlers commenced, as longhair youths in skull caps burned tires, hurled rocks and pushed and shoved authorities, alternately taunting police or pleading with them to disobey their orders to empty the community.
“This is my home. I want to stay here. It is my right to stay here,” resident Tamar Nizri told Channel 2 TV news. “This is expulsion, destruction, an injustice and a crime. The most basic truth is that the Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel,” including the West Bank, she said.
The day’s bitter clashes transfixed the nation, as Jews evicted Jews, with the democratic state fighting to uphold the rule of law as religious settlers claimed the rule of God. The scenes played out live on television and the Internet, as Israeli politicians promised this would not happen again. Even the settlers seemed to know that this may be a last eviction. They were zealous in their resistance, but there was more the feeling they had lost a battle — even a skirmish — and not a war.
The Israeli Supreme Court ordered the demolition of the village of 40 families in 2014 because it was built on land privately owned by Palestinians from the neighbouring villages.
Many settlers and their supporters who climbed the rocky hill to defend Amona blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the community’s imminent destruction.
As the police carried red-faced settlers and demonstrators from the homes, bulldozers idled down the hill, ready to knock down the cheap metal caravans, as well as playgrounds, vineyards, olive groves and a synagogue.
The settlers said the government should have defied the court order or found a solution that would allow Jews to remain on biblical land they believe was promised to them by God.
Settlers said they hoped Amona would be the last of hundreds of settlements and outposts built in part on private Palestinian land to be evacuated, because President Trump would support them.
“We will be the last to be dragged from our homes,” said Eli Greenberg, 43, a father of eight who was barricaded inside his family’s trailer on the bitterly cold mountaintop. “We feel good vibrations from Trump. This is the end of this terrible time.”
The razing of Amona and the eviction of its families has been more than a decade in the making. The timeline underscored the political challenges for Israeli leaders, who count on the support of 600,000 settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
By the early evening, Israeli security forces had removed 20 families from their homes and arrested a handful of activists who had turned out to support the residents.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said 15 police officers had been lightly injured in scuffles with settlers and their supporters.
In an attempt to calm the settlers’ fury, Israeli leaders promised that the dismantling of Amona would bring renewed building in the West Bank. Last week, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced that 2,500 new homes would be built in the West Bank. On Tuesday, in anticipation of the Amona clashes, they promised 3,000 more.
“This is a very difficult day,” Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, of the Jewish Home party, saidi. “We have tried and tried to prevent this from happening, but now we are watching 40 families being evicted from their homes.”
Last month, after the Israeli Supreme Court’s eviction order was postponed one last time, the government announced that it had reached an agreement with the Amona settlers — a hefty payout and promises of another spot on the same hillside in exchange for a lowkey, peaceful move.
But as the days wore on, residents of Amona saw no new community being built for them, and Israeli human rights groups filed additional legal petitions on behalf of Palestinians who claim to own that land, too.
The agreement broke down, and on Tuesday the army gave the settlers 48 hours to leave peacefully.
Inside Amona, young Jewish men and women hunkered down in abandoned houses, barbed wire strung up around doors and windows. They climbed on top of the caravans, waving Israeli flags, and protesters screamed at the police, “Shame on you, this is the land of Israel” and “Jews should not evict Jews.”
WE WILL BE THE LAST TO BE DRAGGED FROM OUR HOMES.