Palestinian landowners welcome Amona court decision
Palestinian landowners who lay claim to the land in the settlement of Amona express hope of returning to the area after the High Court decision to evacuate the settlement; 'We will not give up on the land.'
“I am 50 percent optimistic because of the decision by the court and 50 percent pessimistic because of the decision by the Israeli ministers to approve the Regulations Bill,” Ibrahim Yakub from Ein Yabrud told Ynet, one of the owners of land in Amona. “On the one hand I was very happy to hear the decision of th court but on the other hand, yesterday I was extremely frightened because of the decision of the ministers. Their decision gave legal validity to harm Palestinian land.”
Yakub added that he had not yet lost hope that the land will be returned to him. “I hope that at the end of the day the legal rules will prevail. There is no law forcing a man to sell what belongs to him. I will only sell the land if it is my free desire to do so,” Yakub said.
Abd al-Rahman Salah, the mayor of the village of Silwad near Amona, is also one of the petitioners against the appropriation of the land. He expressed confidence that the Supreme Court decision will be respected and Amona will be evacuated by the end of 2016. "We don't want problems and we don't want riots. We are peaceful people and all we want is to cultivate the land that belongs to us and make it bloom. We don't wish to burn or destroy, but to sow, that is all. I believe that after the evacuation we can get to the land and cultivate it once more."
The fact that the Regulations Bill states that Palestinian landowners will be compensated to the amount of 125% of the land's worth does little to console the petitioners. "There is one thing that is more important than money and that is the connection between the land and its owners," explained Yakub. "I can imagine it like a connection between a mother and child. A mother will never give up her child in exchange for money, it is not at all comparable, and as such, we will not give up on the land."
The mayor of Silwad was even more adamant saying, "Even if they offered us three billion, we would still not agree. It is entirely against our principles."
Yakub made it clear that he believes one day he will return to his land. "I know that today the land isn't in the same condition it was when it was settled, nor is it in the same condition it was when I first walked on it in 1997. We need to cultivate it in order for it to be ready for sowing, but there is no such thing as impossible, because with the help of hope and desire, everything can return to normal."
The petitioners argue that not only is it their land, but they also farmed and cultivated it in the past, with the help of the Civil Administration, which examined aerial photos from the 80s. The photographs were submitted to the court for the civil suit in which the petitioners were attempting to claim damages for the illegal use of their land. The court ruled in their favor and required the government to pay NIS 300,000 in damages.
For their part, the settlers claim that the area that was built upon is jointly owned and was acquired in 1995, but could not prove this claim. Furthermore, there was a suspicion of forged documents attempting to strengthen this claim.
