Amona
Photo: AFP
The problem with Amona; a half meter of asphalt
One of the major problems in making a deal to move the settlement of Amona deals with the widening of a road which crosses a half meter onto private Palestinian land; another problem: the lack of contiguity amongst the housing plots.
The committee to evict the residents of the illegal Amona settlement met on Thursday at the office of the Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.
Officials involved in the issue said that representatives from the Ministry of Justice and from the Civil Authority put forth a position to the attorney general suggesting that the illegal homes and residents be evicted and re-established on 11 plots of land which are not contested by the Palestinians.
At the end of the meeting, Mandelblit created teams whose job it will be to find solutions to the new problems which are expected to arise as a result of the new layout.
Amona (Photo: Tal Shachar)
The problems which may jeopardize the proposed solution are the widening of the road to the new settlement. According to the details, the road needs to be widened by five meters, but half a meter of that crosses onto private Palestinian land. An additional problem; the 11 plots are separated from each other, and aren't territorially contiguous.
Officials on the right said on Thursday that if the project is delayed, they will work to enact legislation to legalize all of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Amona is the largest illegal outpost in the territories. It is home to 40 families with 200 children. The Ofra-adjacent outpost began as an archaeological excavation site. In 2006, the High Court of Justice ordered the demolition of some of the permanent homes built there, and eight years later, it ordered that the entire settlement be evacuated. The court's reasoning was that the land upon which the settlement was built is private Palestinian land.
About a month ago, the attorney general ordered the government to review the layout of absentee properties in the Amona lands and publish objections to the proposed area. Objections to 24 plots out of 35 were filed with the Civil Administration.
