Israel evacuates small settler community

The Israeli Knesset passed the controversial “Regularisation Bill” which allows for the retrospective legalisation of outposts built on Palestinian land.

Israeli police enter the last home in their attempt to remove settlers from the Ofra settlement, February 28, 2017 [Twitter / @RaoulWolltiff]

Protesters clash with Israeli police who are trying to remove settlers from the Ofra settlement, February 28, 2017 [Twitter / @RaoulWolltiff]

Protestors gather at a house in the Ofra settlement, to prevent Israeli forces moving the settlers. Image taken on February 28, 2017 [Twitter / @jeremysharon]

Israeli police today began removing residents and protesters from nine West Bank settler homes set to be demolished under a Supreme Court ruling.

The homes in the Ofra settlement were found to have been built on private Palestinian land and ordered razed by 5 March.

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Police entered the homes today and removed young protesters one at a time, a reporter said.

Regularisation Bill

It allows for the retroactive legalisation of a number of Israeli outposts built in the occupied West Bank on Palestinian lands. Under the law, Israel will either pay Palestinians compensation or alternative plots in return for the land which has been confiscated.

Leaders of the Ofra community said they were intent on preventing clashes with security forces such as those that took place during the eviction of the nearby Amona outpost three weeks ago, where youths barricaded themselves in the synagogue and wounded Israeli forces with stones and acid.

Amona residents announced they would begin a hunger strike today until the government keeps its commitment to build them a new settlement.

Around 600,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the Six Day War of 1967.

The international community sees settlements as illegal and a major obstacle to peace, as they are built on land internationally designated as part of a future Palestinian state.

Read: Two faces to the settlements

The Israeli Knesset passed the controversial “Regularisation Bill” which allows for the retrospective legalisation of outposts built on Palestinian land.

The bill has been criticised by human rights groups and legal experts who have said that it violates property rights. The government’s attorney general has stated that the bill was unconstitutional and contradicts Israel’s legal obligations under international law.

Rights groups and the UN have warned that the bill is another big step towards complete annexation of the occupied West Bank and would mark the end of the two-state solution.

RAMALLAH, WEST BANK – FEBRUARY 28: Police officers intervene to Jewish Orthodoxs during the evacuation of Ofra Israeli settlement in Ramallah, West Bank on February 28, 2017. ( Noam Moskowitz – Anadolu Agency )

RAMALLAH, WEST BANK – FEBRUARY 28: Jewish Orthodoxs who do not want to Evacute settlement during the evacuation of Ofra Israeli settlement in Ramallah, West Bank on February 28, 2017. ( Noam Moskowitz – Anadolu Agency )

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