Amona leaders launch hunger strike in front of PM’s residence

Residents of the demolished West Bank outpost of Amona announced a hunger strike on Tuesday to last until the government follows through on a promise to build a new settlement for the evacuated hilltop community.

“The government led by Benjamin Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett has lost the justification for its existence,” said the illegal outpost’s leadership in a joint statement.

They lamented the government’s decision to evacuate Amona earlier this month after the High Court ruled that it was built illegally on private Palestinian land.

“One destruction follows another. Their word is not their word,” the statement added, referring to Tuesday’s evacuation of nine illegally built homes in the Ofra settlement, which comes just weeks after the Amona clearing.

While the publication of the statement came on the same day as the Ofra demolitions, Amona spokesman Ofer Inbar told The Times of Israel that the timing of their planned protest is coincidental. “It’s been a month since the evacuation. We’ve had enough,” he said.

The hunger strike will be led by the leader of the campaign against the settlement’s destruction, Avichai Boaron, the head of Amona’s secretariat, Ori Shag, and the settlement’s rabbi, Yair Frank, Inbar said.

“They will likely be joined by others from the community,” he said. “Mostly men, but I have the feeling that women will also join.”

Evicted residents from the Isreali settlement of Amona protest in front of the prime minister office in Jerusalem holding a sign that reads “You’ve destroyed our home,” on February 12, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The hunger strike was set to start Wednesday in a tent in front of the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, and the organizers invited the public to join them.

The prime minister and education minister were addressed directly in the statement, which demanded they follow through on their promise to build a new community for the settlers.

Under an agreement signed with the government ahead of the Amona evacuation, the residents were allowed to pick a new site to rebuild their community — a first state-sanctioned new settlement to be built in decades.

The residents of Amona voted to move to the Geulat Tzion unauthorized outpost, located in the Shiloh settlement bloc. While Amona was built on privately owned Palestinian land, Geulat Tzion lies on a state-owned plot.

According to the deal, the new settlement was to be set up within two months.

On February 19, Netanyahu reportedly told members of the security cabinet that the government may have to renege on his pledge to set up the new West Bank settlement, following a request by US President Donald Trump to “hold back” on settlement construction.

Tova and Neria Antman with their daughters pose for a photo by the tents set up as part of a protest of the Amona evacuation opposite the Israeli parliament on February 9, 2017. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

But in an apparent effort to walk back the leaked comments, a senior aide from the Prime Minister’s Office told reporters the next day that there is “absolutely no intention to violate the commitment that was made to the settlers of Amona.”

The clarification did not satisfy the demolished outpost’s leadership, who held Netanyahu and Bennett responsible for the displaced families, who have been allegedly housed with eight people to a room for the past month.

“How can you, Benjamin Netanyahu… continue to roam the lounges of the world when here at home the communities…of citizens who voted for you are erased,” challenged the activists, referring to the series of trips abroad the prime minister has taken this month.