Ahead of evacuation, new legal troubles set to derail Amona plan
Temporary relocation of illegally built outpost to three nearby plots likely canceled over new legal appeals
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A plan to relocate residents from an illegally built West Bank outpost has hit yet another legal snag less than three weeks before a court-ordered evacuation.
The Amona outpost is due to be demolished by December 25, according to a High Court of Justice judgment from 2014. The 40 families who live in the outpost, built on private Palestinian land and the subject of some 15 years of legal wrangling, are slated to be transferred to three plots of land located just dozens of meters from the current site of the outpost. The new location will house the families for eight months while permanent alternatives are arranged.
But that plan, conceived by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, is reportedly off the table Tuesday after the anti-settlement group Yesh Din lodged legal appeals against two of the three sites, Channel 2 news reported.
The plots in question belong to “absentee” landlords, a term usually referring to Palestinians who left the country before or during Israel’s capture of the area in 1967 and whose identities are unknown. They are administered by the state’s Custodian of Absentee Properties, a legal status that Mandelblit suggested would make the temporary use of the lands less problematic under law.
Channel 2 cited a “senior legal source” as saying it was almost certainly not possible to overcome the appeals by the late-December deadline.
The hiccup marks the latest stumble in a saga that has roiled the coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Knesset on Monday advanced a special Regulation Bill that would, if passed, resolve future cases similar to Amona’s — where settlements are built on land that later turns out to be privately owned — in favor of the residents.
The latest version of the Regulation Bill excludes Amona from its new arrangements, but would allow future outposts to be “regulated” by empowering the state to forcibly lease the land from its Palestinian owners in exchange for monetary compensation. If the bill becomes law it is may well be struck down by the High Court.
Amona’s demolition can no longer be appealed. It’s not clear where the 40 families who live there will go. Military authorities are reportedly planning a stopgap housing solution in nearby Ofra.
The Times of Israel Community.