Amona residents vow to ‘stand as a fortified wall’ to stop evacuation

Residents of the West Bank outpost of Amona, which is scheduled for evacuation before year’s end, warned Monday that they would “stand as a fortified wall” in the face of any attempt to uproot them.

Reacting to the High Court of Justice’s ruling that the West Bank outpost must be cleared of residents by December 25, settlers appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent the decision from being enacted.

“We call on Netanyahu, 40 families and 200 children…their lives are in your hands,” resident Avichai Boaron said.

If the evacuation moves forward, Boaron said, “there will be no one to blame…the responsibility is first and foremost your own.

“If you fulfill your task, we will all stand up and salute you. If you betray it, we will stand as a fortified wall, along with our supporters from across the country who will come here to protest the evacuation,” Boaron said.

The High Court on Monday denied a request by the government to postpone the evacuation, which was ordered by the court some two years ago. “The evacuation must occur before December 25,” the court said in its ruling, the latest twist in an incendiary battle between Israel’s judiciary and the right-wing governing coalition. “The court rejects the delay requested by the state.”

Ministers from ruling Likud party spoke out against Monday’s ruling.

Culture Minister Miri Regev claimed that the court’s decision was out of touch with reality and showed anti-Jewish bias. “This is a cold decision, detached from the community and from the complexity of the situation,” she wrote on Facebook. “I have never seen similar concern for the tens of thousands of illegal (Arab) homes in the Negev, the Galilee or Wadi Ara.”

Regev wrote of the symbolism of the expulsion order. “The date that the High Court is insisting on is the first day of Hanukkah, the festival that embodies Jewish independence,” she said. “I believe that we will complete the Regulation Bill within the next two weeks and the residents of Amona will be able to light their Hanukkah candles in their own homes.”

The so-called Regulation Bill is designed to avert to the court-ordered demolition of the outpost and other illegal settlements. The bill was approved by a ministerial panel on Sunday night over the objections of Netanyahu and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit. The bill was deemed legally indefensible by Mandelblit.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Army Radio that he hoped the Regulation Bill would pass quickly to avert the impending destruction of Amona.

Also speaking to Army Radio Tourism Minister Yariv Levin implied that Israel’s lack of a constitution left the court ruling with no legs to stand on. “Every time they tell me that the law is unconstitutional, I just ask that they show me the constitution,” he said.

On Sunday, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the Jewish Home party brought the Regulation Bill to a vote despite efforts by the prime minister to delay, and repeated statements from Mandelblit that the legislation runs contrary to international law and would be indefensible in the High Court.

The measure still must pass the Knesset, but Sunday’s vote means it will enjoy coalition support as it moves through the stages of legislation.

The ministerial panel was interrupted on Sunday night as Shaked and Bennett were summoned to a meeting with coalition party leaders and Netanyahu in a last-ditch bid to prevent the vote. That meeting was reportedly heated, with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman telling Bennett he was “endangering the entire settlement movement on an electoral whim,” according to Israeli media reports.

Bennett and Shaked were said to have left the room infuriated, returning to the ministerial meeting, where they went ahead and held the vote in defiance of the prime minister.

Ahead of the vote, Mandelblit had again implored ministers to reject the proposal.

The bill will likely be brought to its first reading in the plenum on Wednesday.