'Amona residents won't be allowed to move to adjacent plot'

Residents of the Amona West Bank outpost — due to be demolished on December 25 — will not be allowed to move to plot adjacent to the settlement due to Palestinian claims that the alternative parcel is also privately owned, according to Hebrew media reports.

The head of a Palestinian village and an Israeli rights group petitioned Monday against the government’s plan to move residents of an illegal West Bank outpost to the area.

Young Jewish men seen building a structure in the Jewish settlement of Amona in the West Bank, on November 28, 2016. The structure is meant to house supporters for when the state decides to evacuate the illegal settlement. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

With legislation scuppered to prevent the High Court-imposed demolition order, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has proposed an alternative solution whereby the evacuees of Amona would be housed temporarily on three plots of land administered by Israel’s Custodian for Absentees’ Property.

The Jewish Home party had agreed to drop a clause regarding Amona from a bill to prevent settlements built on private land from being demolished if they were built with state assistance on the condition that the Amona residents would be allowed to move to the adjacent plot.