Bennett announces new Amona resettlement plan

Jewish Home chair Naftali Bennett says a new plan has been made to move the residents of Amona to an adjacent plot of land following the High Court-imposed evacuation due this month.

After intense efforts and negotiations with the prime minster and the attorney general, we have succeeded in forming a plan to keep Amona on the mountain,” Benet tells his weekly faction meeting.

After efforts to prevent the evacuation by reversing the High Court ruling via legislation to legalize West Bank outposts failed, attorney general Avichai Mandelblit had recommended moving the residents to a piece of land next to the existing settlement where they would be allowed to stay for eight months. But that plan was also reportedly scuppered last week by fresh Palestinian claims of private ownership.

“The new plan has longer prospects than the previous one and even has potential for expansion in the future,” Bennett says, but he refused to give details of the agreement.

“I don’t want to reveal the plan before we present it to the people of Amona, whose determination has brought us to this agreement,” he says, adding that representatives of the Jewish Home will meet with residents later today. “I believe that we will get their agreement.”

The plan, however, would not prevent residents being forced to leave their current homes and Bennett says that “any evacuation of a Jewish settlement is a tragedy but this will mean keeping Amona on the mountain.”

— Raoul Wootliff