Israel approves Amona residents’ compensation as evacuation continues

The Israeli government intends to approve a compensation package for each family that had been evacuated from the illegal West Bank outpost of Amona, Hebrew media sources revealed.

According to Israel’s Channel 2, every family will receive monetary compensation of approximately NIS 500,000 ($130,000), depending on the estimated value of the evacuated property.

The Israeli Supreme Court has ordered the outpost’s demolition by 25 December, after many Palestinians have filed petitions claiming ownership of lands on which some 40 Jewish communities, approximately 330 settlers, have been built.

Last Wednesday, the so-called settlements’ “legalisation bill” passed its first reading in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. The bill could legalise dozens of Israeli outposts in the occupied West Bank retroactively. However, a clause demanding that the Amona outpost be retroactively legalised was removed from the bill.

The government requested on Sunday a one-month delay from the High Court, to provide more time to find housing for the residents, and the High Court has not yet ruled on the request, Israel Radio reported. The delay would move the demolition date to January 25, five days after US President-elect Trump takes office.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also stressed that the delay is necessary to prepare temporary housing solutions.

On Thursday, dozens of Amona’s approximately 300 residents protested outside the High Court against the evacuation, calling for an end to its “dictatorship”, Times of Israel reported.

Israel’s Haaretz reported that Amona residents sent out a message to local settlers saying the evacuation was likely to take place on Saturday night, after Shabbat, and called on them to help resist the evacuation. Sources close to the prime minister, however, said Friday that the evacuation would not take place Saturday night.

At least 20 evacuated families have approached the secretariat of the nearby settlement of Ofra asking to be provided with housing there. The Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, the local authority to which both Ofra and Amona belong, has said that despite the planned resistance to the eviction of Amona’s residents, it would assist any of them looking for alternative housing.

Amona, the largest of about 100 unauthorised outposts, was established illegally in 1995 on a land that is owned by individual Palestinians, without a prior permission but generally tolerated by the government. In 2006, Israeli police demolished nine houses there, causing clashes between the settlers and their allies against the Israeli police.

International human rights’ organisations had repeatedly criticised Israel for its settlement expansion and disregard for international law. They consider all Israeli settlements as illegal under international law and that it constitutes one of the main obstacles to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.