Amona - to be removed
Court OKs outpost removal
Justice Cheshin slams Amona settlers over website messages calling for resistance to evacuation, says it appears settlers are only interested in court decision as long as it's in their favor
The High Court of Justice rejected a petition by settlers against government plans to evacuate Amona, effectively giving security forces the green light to remove settlers from the illegal West Bank outpost.
Justice Mishael Cheshin entered the courtroom and proceeded to blast the nine families who filed the petition for publishing on, an internet website, calls to use violence against security forces set to evacuate settlers from Amona.
“What this in fact says is that you have submitted a petition to the High Court ani If you win, it’s good, and if you lose you will fight. The High Court does not support those who advocate the use of force, and here people are planning for it and announcing it,” Cheshin said.
Representing the settlers, Attorney Naphtali Wartzburger told Cheshin that he won’t attempt to hide the fact that some settlers have called for resisting security forces, but the court should take into consideration that the prospect of being evacuated has been difficult for Amona residents.
'This court is not a supermarket'
However, Cheshin did not accept the argument and proceeded to quote from the settlers' web site, before noting “these calls were not addressed at the British occupier, but against the democratically elected government of Israel."
"We received information from the authorities that you dug tunnels around the place and you cannot say ‘it is not us, someone else did it,'" the judge said.
However, Wartzburger attacked the government’s distribution of restriction and eviction orders to Amona settlers ahead of the High Court’s ruling on a petition against the evictions and after a High Court injunction banning security forces from activity on the settlement.
But Cheshin said the morning's operation was not contradictory to the intermediate edict, though "it could be true that it's really not aesthetic," he said.
Werzberger, however, insisted that calls for a struggle did not amount to encouragement for the use of force, but for a public struggle.
"In petitions of this type on the security fence, did someone say that the other side had to refrain from demonstrations? Why do we have to be more righteous than the pope?" he asked.
Judge Cheshin replied: "This court is not a supermarket in which a person takes furniture he wants and leaves what he doesn't want. The court is not an option, it is one of three government arms. When someone says: Either I get what want or I use force – that is unacceptable. They (the residents of Amona) are saying: Gush Katif will not fall again!"
At this point, Werzberger's aide, Doron Nir Zvi, stood up, to speak to judges, but he only provoked Cheshin further by asking: "How do you xpect people not to prepare for a struggle if they are not assisted in this court?"
Cheshin was furious at the remark, and threatened to eject Nir Zvi from the courtroom. He then demanded to know whether Werzberger's opinion was represented by Nir Zvi's remarks.
"We have taken all possibilities into consideration, including the possibility that we won't receive the court's backing. But that is not a threat," Werzberger said.
