High Court approves another postponement of Amona eviction

Eviction of illegal outpost set for April 30 deferred again to July 15; residents insist that motions to evict are meant to 'harm everything Zionist, Jewish in this country'

Aviel Magnezi|Published: 04.28.13 , 20:18

The High Court of Justice approved Sunday the postponement of the eviction of the illegal outpost Amona, setting July 15 as the new eviction date.

In March, the State motioned the High Court of Justice for postponement of the eviction, which was scheduled to take place Tuesday. The High Court justices who approved the deferment Sunday noted they were granting postponement in the case of the Amona outpost for the last time.

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The State was initially supposed to evict Amona, which was built on privately owned land, by the end of 2012, but in November 2012, Justices Asher Grunis, Esther Hayut and Hanan Melcer granted the request and gave a new deadline for the eviction – April 30, 2013.

In response to the decision, the Yesh Din human rights group stated "the court's ruling today… reinforces the call that the illegal outpost should be evicted, as it was built illegally on stolen private land. We hope that the State honors the court's ruling without delay."

The human rights group added that the Palestinian petitioners they were representing were "eager to return to their lands."

Amona residents nonetheless insisted that "Over the recent months, dozens of dunams were acquired and are presently owned by Jewish proprietors. Let us not forget that the Arab petitioners are claiming only parts of the lands of Amona… and have not proved ownership of the lands."

The outpost residents added that the petitioners' goal, as is the goal of their "lawyers and the radical left is to harm everything Zionist and Jewish in this country. In light of that, we are certain that the new cabinet, led by Likud and Habayit Hayehudi ministers will work to inform the court that the State had changed its position and is not about to harm Zionism by evicting a settlement in the land of Israel."

The outpost was formed in 1995, and was developed gradually with the addition of structures over the years. In 2008, a legal proceeding into the legality of the outpost was initiated, resulting in the State acknowledging that the outpost was in fact illegal, leading to a decision to evict it in its entirety.