With cry of ‘go to hell,’ minister chased out of Amona outpost
Kulanu's Yoav Galant prevented from speaking, then besieged in building by protesters at West Bank site, who also surround his car
Housing Minister Yoav Galant (Kulanu) was forced to leave the West Bank outpost of Amona Sunday morning, just half an hour after he arrived, when an angry mob of protesters shouted abuse at him and prevented him from speaking to the media.
Ahead of a court-imposed evacuation slated for this week, Galant visited the site as residents debated a government proposal to allow some 24 families to stay on adjacent plots on the hilltop in exchange for a pledge to leave their homes peacefully. The minister had planned to tour the outpost and give a press conference but was quickly surrounded by protesters who had gathered there over the past week in the hope of staving off security forces and delaying the evacuation.
As he made his way to the main synagogue, dozens of young demonstrators joined the huddle surrounding Galant, chanting, “The land of Israel is not for sale,” and “The land of Israel is for the people of Israel.”
Galant entered the synagogue through a side entrance, after he was initially met with shouting at the main entrance. But the shouts and raucous singing followed him nonetheless, as protesters in the synagogue’s sanctuary also harangued the government minister.
Prevented from speaking to any of the residents, Galant made his way to the outpost’s administrative building where he was soon besieged by the crowd. Effectively trapped inside, he tried to salvage the visit by giving a short statement to the press emphasizing the need to comply with Israel’s laws.
“We understand the difficult situation. We’ll work to make sure that Amona is still on this hill and is stronger,” he said. “But the rulings of the court have to be carried out. This is a country that has a law, and we will follow it.’
In a last-ditch effort to prevent a forced evacuation of the West Bank outpost, the government on Saturday night presented residents with a revised agreement that would see twice as many families stay on the hilltop, as compared to a previous proposal rejected by the settlers last week.
Under the agreement, presented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Yossi Dagan, head of the Shomron Regional Council, 24 out of its over 40 families would receive mobile homes on a plot meters from the outpost — as opposed to the 12 in last week’s offer — while the remaining families would be given temporary residences in the nearby settlement of Ofra. The Amona residents were set to vote on the proposal on Sunday.
Also holed up in the administrative building, Yesha Council spokesman Avi Roeh thanked Galant for visiting. “We appreciate that the minister came here first thing Sunday morning despite the fact that we can see there is no small number of frustrated kids here who don’t want to see the evacuation of a settlement that’s been here for 20 years,” he said.
“We’re trying to keep the settlement on the hill in order or stop the left-wing elements, whose goal is to break up the settlement,” he added.
But, while calling on protesters to “obey the law,” Roeh offered his own criticism of Galant’s Kulanu party which was instrumental in revising a recent Knesset bill that sought, in its original form, to avert the razing of the outpost.
Two weeks ago, Kulanu chairman Moshe Kahlon forced the coalition to drop a clause from the so-called Regulation Bill — which would legalize some 4,000 housing units built on private Palestinian land — that would have retroactively canceled the High Court order to evacuate Amona by December 25.
The Jewish Home party fought to include Amona in the legislation and had it not been for Kulanu’s opposition, it seems likely that the bill, including the controversial clause, would have gone into law. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has opposed the bill in both its original and revised versions, calling it “unconstitutional” and indefensible in Israel’s High Court of Justice, which appears likely to knock down the legislation. The bill has been approved in its preliminary and first readings by the Knesset. It must still go through two more plenary readings and withstand the anticipated High Court of Justice challenge before it becomes law.
Jewish Home MK Motti Yogev was also visiting Amona Sunday but appeared to be spared the same treatment Galant had received, only briefly being held up by protesters as he walked to the synagogue alongside Galant.
After the ordeal, as Galant tried to leave, his security guards had to forcibly push protesters out of the way in order to make a path to the minister’s car. The vehicle, however, was quickly surrounded by protesters who prevented the car from moving. One woman banged on the window shouting, “Go to hell, Galant.”
He was only able to leave after guards exited the car to physically clear a path out of the settlement.