A meeting was held on Thursday 12 Elul in the office of Attorney General Dr. Avichai Mandelblit to discuss the future of the community of Amona. Amona, situated near Ofra in the Binyamin Regional Council of Shomron, must be razed by the end of the Gregorian year as per a High Court order. The High Court ruled the community was by and large built illegally on privately owned Arab land.

A plan was discussed to address the 11 areas of absentee landlords, areas that the Arabs have not made any claim to. This proposal comes from the Justice Ministry, which hopes to conduct an an in-depth probe as to the status of the land in question with the assistance of the IDF Civil Administration. It is reported that the Civil Administration is not on the same page as the Justice Ministry, with the latter claiming it does not see a legal way to make this plan work.

The petitions filed with the High Court by organizations representing PA (Palestinian Authority) resident address 24 of the existing 35 land divisions in Amona, while the remaining 11 are not included in the legal action. If and when the Justice Ministry completes the probe and learns the land has no claims, then a solution will surround those areas, which amount to a combined 73 dunams of land, which is about 18.25 acres.

At present, Amona is home to about 40 families and to date, these families have rejected any and all government offers to move the community to a new venue and rebuild it larger than it is today.

At a recent gathering of prominent dati leumi rabbonim,  Rabbi Zalman Melamed Shlita poke of the removal of the Ulpana neighborhood of Beit El three years ago. At that time, he supported the voluntary evacuation to prevent confrontation based on a promise from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to rebuild the neighborhood at a new venue, a larger version, 300 housing units. However, as Rabbi Melamed points out, this never happened and the government headed by Mr. Netanyahu is no longer to be trusted as promises are not fulfilled.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)