Amona (settlement)
|
Amona עמונה |
|||
 Amona |
|||
| Territory : |
West Bank ( Judea and Samaria ) |
||
| Regional administration : | illegal settlement | ||
| Founded : | 1995 | ||
| Coordinates : | 31 ° 57 ' N , 35 ° 17' E | ||
| Residents : | 300 (2014) | ||
|
|||
Amona ( Hebrew עמונה) is located in the West Bank near Mateh Benjamin . Amona is the largest Israeli outpost in the Palestinian Territories, on a site already mentioned in the Bible (Kefar Amoni in Joshua 18:24). The village became very symbolic when the Jewish houses were demolished. In 2014, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the complete eviction of Amona by December 25, 2016.
location
The settlement is located near Ramallah in the West Bank.
history
Established in 1995
Amona was founded by Jewish settlers from Ofra at the end of 1995 . However, the land had been in Palestinian private ownership long before that. The Palestinians came from Silwad and had built the land according to a "Civil Administration document". Ariel Sharon’s Ministry of Construction had an asphalt road built in Amona, a sewage system and electrical wiring installed.
2005 petition
In 2004, Amana , a Gush Emunim settlement organization , built nine houses on privately owned Palestinian land. In October 2004, the Israeli administration commissioned the demolition of the houses. On July 3, 2005, Shalom Achshaw submitted a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court. In it she complained that the construction of the Jewish settlement was not stopped and that no demolition of the houses was ordered in October 2004. In November 2005 the Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered the demolition for the end of January 2006.
2006 eviction
Menachem Masus allowed the Israeli police to use force against Gush Emunim demonstrators in the evacuation of the Jewish settlement and was therefore exposed to harsh criticism from human rights groups.
On February 1, 2006, settlers and demonstrators were evacuated after unprecedented clashes. 10,000 security forces, consisting of Israeli police officers, Israeli border police and IDF, appeared in Amona to carry out the demolition and to protect the troops involved in the operation. The 10,000 security forces faced around 4,000 Israeli protesters. 1,000 were active protesters who were in and around the houses. The others were in the area. More than 300 people including about 80 security guards were injured. Three Knesset MPs were among the injured demonstrators. After several hours the houses were torn down.
Parliamentary inquiry
In March 2006, the Knesset parliamentary committee of inquiry into the events in and around Amona stated that security forces had used excessive brutality by riding horses towards protesters and beating demonstrating pedestrians with clubs.
The Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra was criticized for deter police commanders from testifying at the hearings. The committee of inquiry had also found contradictions in the statements of Army Chief of Staff Dan Chalutz and Minister of Homeland Security Gideon Esra.
Despite these results, no apology was given. In May 2006, Israeli President Moshe Katzav met with some of the protesters injured in Amona and stated that he would ask for the investigation to be renewed.
2008 petition
In 2008, on behalf of the Palestinian landowners , Yesh Din asked the Israeli Supreme Court to request that the entire outpost in Amona be torn down. The state has repeatedly asked for a delay. On April 28, 2013, the Supreme Court granted a final postponement of the eviction until July 15, 2013.
Since the Jewish settlers now declared that they had in the meantime acquired some of the land through the Al-Watan Society, the Israeli Supreme Court had to postpone the execution of the decision indefinitely. Since the Jewish settlers had also submitted a petition to the Jerusalem District Court, the Israeli Supreme Court decided that on July 24, 2013 only the undisputed houses and part of the access road should be torn down. With only one Palestinian owner petitioning the court, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein ordered the army to demolish just one building.
On August 20, 2013, at a hearing at the Israeli Supreme Court, the attorney general stated that he believed that the decision to spare Jewish homes on July 24, 2013 only applied to those Jewish residents of Amona whose names were attached to the petition .
Yesh Din has since filed another petition calling for about 30 buildings that have not been cleared to be demolished.
Development between 2014 and 2016
In June 2014, after six years of litigation, Arabs received compensation for lost income from their land for the first time in Israel's history. A comparison with the state confirms that the construction of the buildings on the land concerned was not only carried out without a permit, but was also subsidized with state funds. 300,000 ILS are paid immediately and a further 48,000 if the houses are still not removed by the end of 2015. The state wants to regress against the settlers .
In December 2014, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the evacuation and demolition of the entire Jewish settlement of Amona in the West Bank. The judges ordered the decision to be implemented by 2016. The court also stated that other land ownership lawsuits were pending. The Israeli government must find alternative accommodation for the settlers, the judges said. The court's decision came a few days after the Israeli authorities had finalized 380 new settlement buildings in two locations in Palestinian East Jerusalem . According to the Israeli Internet portal "Ynet", the residents of Amona criticized the decision. Various human rights organizations and opponents of the settlement had fought against Amona for years before the verdict because, in their opinion, the settlement was built on land that legally belonged to Arabs. Shortly before the original deadline, December 25, 2016, the deadline for eviction was extended by 45 days to February 8, 2017.
Eviction 2017
It was agreed with the settlement movement that the evacuation would take place without resistance and that the residents would be resettled in the neighborhood. But after it turned out that the land intended for this purpose was partly in Palestinian private ownership, the agreement was invalid. In response, the government tabled a bill that would allow “temporary expropriation ” and compensation for landowners in such a case. A retroactive validity for Amona was not possible due to an existing OGH judgment. This “regulation law” was then passed on February 6, 2017 under international protest.
On January 31, 2017, the residents were asked to leave the place within 48 hours, whereupon numerous sympathizers came to support. On February 1, the evacuation was carried out, as it was exactly eleven years earlier, with a large police presence and fierce resistance. Only on the following day were all houses and finally the synagogue cleared by the occupiers. Again there were numerous injuries on both sides. The demolition of the houses began the following week.
More than 30 Israeli families from Amona moved to the new Amichai settlement near Shiloh on March 25, 2018 . It was the first time since 1993 that the Israeli government approved the construction of a new settlement. Six days after the evacuation of the Amona outpost, the Knesset passed a “regulatory law” that allows the retrospective legalization of the 100 settlements illegally built between 1995 and the early 2000s.
literature
- Jochen Stahnke: Those who cause trouble will be shot, in: FAZ No. 296, December 19, 2016, p. 3.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chaim Levinson, 'Illegal West Bank outpost to be razed by end of 2012, Barak decides,' . Haaretz, November 1, 2011: 'Over the last few days, Amona settlers have informed Eitan Broshi, the Defense Ministry's adviser on settlement issues, that they are seeking to buy the land. They previously said they had already purchased the land, but those claims were not substantiated. Amona, which was built on private Palestinian land and houses some 50 Jewish families, has become one of the symbols of the settlement movement in recent years. '
- ↑ a b Americans for Peace Now (APN), Settlements in Focus - Vol. 2, Issue 3: Amona Redux . February 20, 2006
- ↑ Motti Inbari, Jewish Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount: Who Will Build the Third Temple? , pp. 167-168. SUNY Press , 2009
- ↑ Chaim Levinson, Much of Amona outpost built on cultivated Palestinian land, Civil Administration says . Haaretz, August 22, 2013.
- ↑ FAZ No. 296, December 19, 2016, p. 3.
- ^ Efraim Ben-Zadok: Local communities and the Israeli polity: conflict of values and interests (accessed November 18, 2011).
- ^ Myron J. Aronoff: Israeli Visions and Divisions (Retrieved November 18, 2011).
- ↑ אמנה - תנועת ההתיישבות - about us . Amana.co.il. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
- ^ Arutz Sheva - Hundreds Injured in Brutal Demolition of Nine Jewish Homes
- ^ Yesh Din, April 28, 2013, High Court of Justice Sets July 15, 2013 ...
- ^ Tovah Lazaroff, High Court delays Amona evacuation until July 15 . Jerusalem Post, April 28, 2013
- ^ Tovah Lazaroff, High Court delays evacuation of West Bank outpost Amona . Jerusalem Post, July 12, 2013
- ^ Tovah Lazaroff, AG to PM: Prioritize home demolitions on private Palestinian property . Jerusalem Post, July 19, 2013
- ↑ Chaim Levinson, Israel's AG postpones evacuation of 30 houses in Amona outpost . Haaretz, 19 July 2013
- ↑ Tovah Lazaroff, Amona outpost homes now in High Court's hands . Jerusalem Post, August 21, 2013
- ↑ Yesh Din July 30, 2013, Yesh Din today filed a motion ...
- ^ For first time, Israel compensating Palestinians over settlers' land grab , Ha-Aretz on June 25, 2014
- ^ Israel orders destruction of Amona settlement , Al Arabiya News, December 25, 2014
- ↑ http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/israel-siedlungen-101~magnifier_pos-0.html ( Memento from December 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ The evacuation of Amona is further delayed. Luxemburger Wort , December 25, 2016, accessed on the same day
- ^ Israel's Ruling Coalition Tries to Push Back Vote on Legalizing Seizure of Palestinian Land , Ha-Aretz on February 1, 2017
- ^ Israel's parliament passes West Bank outposts bill , CNN on February 7, 2017
- ↑ Amona Live Updates , Ha-Aretz on February 1st and 2nd, 2017
- ↑ Israel begins to dismantle homes in evacuated Amona outpost , Ha-Aretz on February 6, 2017
- ↑ Amona residents move to Amichai In: Israelnetz.de , March 28, 2018, accessed on May 11, 2018.
- ^ West Bank: the system of land grabbing , Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Israel. August 31, 2017