Israeli settlers reject relocation offer
Illegal residents defiant as evacuation deadline looms, while youth stage sit-in and place nails and poles along roads
AMONA OUTPOST, PALESTINE // Residents of an illegal Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank yesterday rejected a proposal to leave voluntarily, raising fears of violence as an evacuation deadline nears. The Amona outpost, home to about 40 families, is under a high court order to be evacuated by December 25 since it was found to have been built on private Palestinian land.
The residents’ rejection led to concerns the army would move in imminently to clear them out, leading dozens of youths to stream into the hilltop outpost in windy and bitterly cold weather in the middle of the night. Many of them, alerted to the decision by social media, crowded into a small synagogue and dozed in sleeping bags on the floor, while others stayed in their cars or simply walked the streets.
After sunrise, some of the more hardcore youths, wearing knitted skullcaps, their sidelocks dangling, spread nails, stones and wooden poles along roads.
Several took up position on top of a water tower while waving an Israeli flag. They also hauled a skip with them for reasons that were unclear. A spokesman for Amona residents who has lived in the outpost for 14 years said they had not been given any notice of when an evacuation could happen. Asked whether he was concerned that the youths’ presence in the outpost would lead to violence, he said: “I’m worried about the government inflicting pain on people – needless pain.”
“There is no difference between Amona and Tel Aviv,” said Eli Greenberg, a 43-year-old father of eight, referring to Israel’s economic capital located within its internationally recognised borders.
“There’s no reason to take us out of here,” he said.
The dispute over whether to demolish the outpost north-east of Ramallah has taken on international importance because of concern over settlement expansion in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967.
Israeli nationalist politicians, settlement advocates and Amona residents have resisted the move, and the international community is watching closely to see whether the court order will be obeyed.
All Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including annexed East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law, but Israel differentiates between those it has approved and those it has not.
Settlements such as Amona are called outposts, meaning they do not have approval.
After recent efforts to pass a bill to legalise it failed, the state presented residents with what it described as a way to relocate them to nearby plots.
But following an 11- hour debate, residents rejected the offer, which they said in fact applied to the relocation of only 12 of the families to nearby plots considered available.
The other 28 families would move to temporary housing in the nearby Ofra settlement as the state sought a long- term solution, said a spokeswoman for the regional Binyamin council, Eliana Passentin.
“It was a proposal that held nothing in it,” Amona residents said of the state’s offer. Israeli officials have told local media that there will be no other offer.
There are concerns over how any evacuation will play out.
In 2006, the demolition of nine permanent houses in the outpost led to clashes between settlers and Israeli security forces.
Settlements are major obstacles blocks to peace efforts as they are built illegally on Palestinian land.
But the settlement movement wields significant power in Israeli politics. Key members of prime minis- ter Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, seen as the most right-wing in the country’s history, openly oppose a Palestinian state and advocate annexing most of the West Bank.
Such religious nationalists claim the Jewish connection to the land to be from biblical times.
After the Amona residents’ vote, a group of seven extremist rabbis issued a statement suggesting security forces not participate in an evacuation.
Kalmen Barkin, a 20-year-old from Jerusalem, was among those gathered in the Amona synagogue before dawn.
He said he did not advocate violence and would passively resist.
“When they come to take you, grab on to something,” he said.
“We’re going to probably be mostly in public buildings – we’ll barricade ourselves in the public buildings.”