BICOM

Residents in the West Bank outpost of Amona have turned down a government proposal to re-house them nearby, just ten days before a court-ordered deadline to evacuate their homes.

The 40 families who live in Amona deliberated for a lengthy period yesterday over the proposal, presented by Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, with the approval of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The plan was to re-house the families on plots of land adjacent to Amona, which are classified as “absentee” property, abandoned by their landlords before or during Israel’s capture of the West Bank in 1967 and whose identities are unknown. The proposal stipulated that the courts would then have a two-year period to consider whether to designate the new site as a “long term settlement”.

In return, the state would request a 30-day extension on the evacuation of Amona, which is mandated by the High Court to take place by 25 December. The residents were also to sign an agreement to leave the outpost peacefully. An evacuation of nine homes in Amona in 2006 turned violent.

Shortly after midnight, the Amona residents announced that they had rejected the proposal, comparing it to “Swiss cheese” with no guarantee of permanent homes on the new site.

A statement said: “We have learned from experience not to believe promises which are not backed by commitments.”

In 2014, the High Court ruled that Amona had been built on private Palestinian land and must be evacuated within two years. The government has proposed what is known as the Regulation Bill, which would retroactively legalise a number of West Bank homes built on private Palestinian land. However, it omits to include Amona, after the coalition Kulanu Party refused to back a law opposing a specific court order.

Responding to the residents’ decision, Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich said that they had been offered “the best possible framework”. Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern bemoaned that the residents “decided to cause an unnecessary conflict with security forces”.