The High Court has issued a temporary injunction halting work to move the Amona outpost to a nearby plot of land, responding to a petition by Palestinian landowners who objected to the government’s relocation plans.
The order comes as residents of the West Bank outpost, slated for demolition, have vowed to renew their fight to stay on the land, accusing the government of failing to keep its promise to move them to nearby plots.
Jewish settlers cook food on a basketball court in Amona, an unauthorized Israeli outpost in the West Bank, east of Ramallah, December 18, 2016. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)
The stop-work order means that any infrastructure work going on at the site will need to be halted, complicating government efforts to find a solution for the settlers and avoid a possible violent standoff.
The petition on Monday, filed by human rights group Yesh Din, objected to a government plan to divide certain plots, which supposedly had no present claimant, and called for the deal to be canceled.
“Ever since the notion of using abandoned property was suggested, we have claimed that one injustice cannot be corrected with another, and that additional land cannot be taken over just to appease Amona residents,” Yesh Din executive director Neta Patrick said in a statement.
— with AFP
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