Efforts are ongoing to prevent the second destruction of the Shomron community of Arnona, located near Ofra in the Binyamin Regional Council. The community is home to tens of families and the High Court two years ago ordered is destroyed after determining it was built on private Palestinian land. The demolition of the community must be carried out by the end of 2016. Activists warn any attempt to expel the residents of Amona and raze the community a second time will mark the end of the current coalition government as the resistance will be formidable.

Likud MK Miki Zohar and David Bitan have introduced a bill that permits delaying the evacuation of any yishuv for seven years providing that yishuv is at least ten years old, which Amona is. The bill stipulates this is so when there are no landowners demanding the land returned.

The original Amona was established in 1997 and the 2006 evacuation resulted in a bloody confrontation with police and soldiers. The High Court in 2014 ruled the entire community is illegal and must be removed by December 25, 2016.

The Bayit Yehudi party has signaled numerous times that any attempt to evacuate any yishuv will result in the party breaking from the coalition immediately. The current Amona residents have also announced they are uninterested in compensation as former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon offered them to relocate and to rebuild larger homes and accommodate many more families. However, this time around the residents are determined to stay where they are and they will not be bought out.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)