Protesters throng Ofra homes as troops begin evacuation

Border Police troops began evacuating settlers and hundreds of protesters from nine homes in the West Bank settlement of Ofra Tuesday, ahead of a court-ordered demolition of the houses found by the court to have been built without permits on private Palestinian land.

Mostly unarmed troops, dressed in bright blue sweaters, faced off against the protesters, many of whom had barricaded themselves in some of the homes, climbing on roofs to and calling on police to refuse orders to clear out the homes.

“The evacuation of the nine homes has begun, in accordance with the High Court order. At the same time, negotiations are continuing with the settlers and local leadership, to allow the operation to go forward without violence,” police said in a statement.

A few minor clashes were reported early Tuesday as a number of young protesters and officers shoved each other while police cordoned off homes.

On Monday, the High Court of Justice rejected an appeal to halt the demolition, with Ofra residents requesting that the nine buildings be sealed off rather than destroyed.

Dozens of the protester youths climbed onto the roofs of some of the homes, as other hung out of windows and more more milled about or danced and chanted on the ground.

Large posters hanging on many of the homes showed the families who had once lived in them, but had since packed up their belongings.

Inside some homes, residents stood solemnly, hugging supporters and waiting for the police to arrive.

The residents of the homes in question have not sought confrontation, saying in a statement, “We will not use crowbars and we will not barricade ourselves” inside the homes. Most of the families living in the buildings have already left, the Ynet news site reported.

The looming showdown between troops and protesters was reminiscent of a scene earlier this month as police evacuated the nearby outpost of Amona.

While most Amona residents resisted passively or left on their own, protesters, including hundreds of settler-backing youths, barricaded themselves in homes and clashed with police during that operation on February 2.

In a statement Tuesday morning, the military said the evacuation operation would not occur before 9 a.m.

“In accordance with the instructions of the political echelon to evacuate nine buildings in Ofra, troops are now deploying across the settlement to prepare for the evacuation and to keep law and order on the scene,” the IDF said.

The court first issued its demolition ruling in February 2015, and, after a number of delays, set March 5 as the final deadline by which the buildings must be pulled down.

The residents’ request to have the structures sealed off and not demolished would have made them eligible for being spared in accordance with legislation passed earlier this month known as the Regulation Law. The law legalizes Jewish homes constructed illegally on Palestinian land, if homeowners can prove they built their homes in good faith or received government assistance.

Palestinians whose land is expropriated under the law are eligible to receive either financial compensation or alternative plots elsewhere.

However, the judges ruled unanimously on Monday that the evacuation of the buildings must go ahead.

On Monday, the IDF began setting up roadblocks around Ofra ahead of the expected evacuation, in order to prevent right-wing activists from arriving at the settlement.

In response, Ofra residents called on the public to come to the site to protest.

Over the weekend, police began carrying out preventive arrests of far-right activists as part of their efforts to avoid a repeat of the violent scenes that occurred during the evacuation of the illegal West Bank outpost of Amona earlier this month.

Border Police officers over the weekend cleared a number of far-right activists from one of the buildings set to be demolished in Ofra. Those inside the building, which is abandoned, were reportedly attempting to barricade themselves to resist the upcoming evacuation.

Earlier this month, over 5,000 people protested the evacuation at a rally in Ofra, with prominent nationalist-religious leader Rabbi Haim Druckman vowing at the demonstration that “we will continue to settle the Land of Israel…. We are not thieves.”

The original case against the nine buildings was brought before the High Court in 2008 by the left-leaning Yesh Din legal organization, which represented the Palestinian landowner.

A report published in the same year by another Israeli rights group, B’Tselem, said some 60 percent of the built-up area of Ofra lies on land that is registered to Palestinians. The claims to private ownership of lands in settlements like Ofra and the Amona outpost are based on the pre-1967 Jordanian land registry, which Israel adopted after it captured the West Bank from the Jordanians that year.

Raoul Wootliff and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.