MK (Bayit Yehudi) Shuli Muallem is one of the Members of Knesset leading the battle to prevent the destruction of Amona. Muallem met with the Knesset Channel for an interview on Sunday, which was observed as 17 Tammuz.

Amona is supposed to be destroyed by the end of the secular year in line with a High Court of Justice ruling since it was determined to have been constructed on private Arab land.

Muallem explains there are over 40 families and 200 children living in Amona today, and the community was created with the support of the government. She feels the state gave inappropriate responses during the High Court case and this is why the court responded as it did.

Muallem explains some of the community is on private land while the remainder is on unclaimed land and an arrangement could have been worked out if the parties were genuinely interested in doing so. She admits that her bill to save Amona does not enjoy the support of the Attorney General, with the latter insisting the bill would not stand the test of another appeal to the High Court.

She feels the community should be moved a few meters from its current location to legalize it and not to defy the nation’s High Court of Justice.

It is pointed out that to date, Amona residents have rejected any solution that entails relocation, saying they will not be bought out as was done in the past.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)