USA TODAY International Edition
Israeli forces begin to evacuate settlers from West Bank outpost
Violence erupted Wednesday as Israeli forces began evacuating settlers from the West Bank outpost of Amona to comply with a court order that ruled the homes were erected illegally on private Palestinian land.
Unarmed police in blue sweatshirts and black baseball caps ascended the hill around midday, the Associated Press reported. On the hilltop, youths created makeshift barricades from tiles, metal bars and large rocks to slow the advance of police. Some protesters threw rocks at Israeli forces, while others set fire to tires and trash, the AP reported.
The dismantlement of the outpost pits radical settlers against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which generally supports expanded Israeli settlements on land also claimed by Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from the village of Taybeh in the West Bank, which overlooks Amona, described fires being lit and smoke cascading down the hills.
“There are a number of people from surrounding settlements coming to support the settlers of Amona,” he said. “[ Amona] is quite small. There are only about 40 houses there, but it really has become a symbol for the settler movement,” Khan said, according to Al Jazeera.
Amona is the largest of about 100 unauthorized outposts erected in the West Bank without permission but generally tolerated by the Israeli government. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled three years ago that the Amona outpost was built on private Palestinian land and ordered it to be demolished. The court set Feb. 8 as the final date for it to be destroyed, the AP reported.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said about 3,000 police officers were operating “carefully and slowly” to evacuate the area, the AP reported. Minor scuffles broke out between some activists and police. Rosenfeld said 13 officers suffered minor injuries from stones and an unidentified liquid hurled by protesters, several of whom were arrested, according to the AP.
The outpost was built in the 1990s and stretches out over a hilltop and looks out across the valley onto Palestinian villages. About 250 people live in Amona. In recent weeks dozens of supporters have arrived to face off against Israeli forces. Rosenfeld said about 1,500 activists were there Wednesday, the AP reported.
On Tuesday, residents were given eviction orders and told they must leave their homes within two days, according to the
Times of Israel. Nine homes in the Ofra settlement nearby are also expected to be demolished.
“This is a dark day for us, for Zionism, for the state and for the great vision of the Jewish people returning to its homeland,” Amona spokesman Avichay Buaron told Channel 2 TV, according to the AP.
On Feb. 1, 2006, Israeli police demolished nine homes at Amona, setting off clashes between settlers and their supporters against police and soldiers.
Yesh Din, the Israeli legal rights group that represented the Palestinian landowners in court, hailed the evacuation. In a Facebook post, it said the landowners are “waiting to return.”
Even as one outpost was being dismantled, Israel announced plans to build 3,000 homes in the West Bank late Tuesday. The Palestinians claim the territory seized in the 1967 war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, as parts of a future independent state.
President Trump has taken a strongly pro- Israel stance. He has vowed to break with tradition and move the U. S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to the Israeli capital of Jerusalem.
Other countries don’t recognize Jerusalem as the capital because Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as their capital of a future independent state. U. S. policy says the future of Jerusalem should be decided in peace negotiations.
In addition, Trump’s choice for U. S. ambassador to Israel, his personal lawyer David Friedman, is a strong backer of Israeli settlements who has encouraged the Israeli government to continue construction, which past U. S. administrations have condemned as an impediment to peace with Palestinians.