Palestinians: Don't Delay Amona Demolition

Jerusalem, 6 November, 2016 (TPS) -- Palestinian landowners petitioned the High Court of Justice on Sunday, asking the court to block a government request to postpone the demolition of Amona.

Attorney’s for the landowners argued that Netanyahu’s request was grounded in political maneuvering aimed at protecting his coalition, but would harm both the true victims who have waited 20 years to return to their lands and the rule of law.

“To consider the requests of the respondents [Netanyahu] represents a serious and unjust injury on the real victims of the Amona affair: the Palestinian landowners, the petitioners and community who have been waiting two decades to return to their land,” wrote the petitioners.  

Amona, an outpost located on a hill overlooking Ofra, is located in the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council and is home to about 40 families. In December, 2014 the High Court of Justice ruled that the community was built on private Palestinian and ordered residents evicted by the end of 2016.

State attorneys’ petitioned the High Court last Monday  for a seven-month postponement, arguing it would permit the government to figure out alternative housing for Amona residents, such as the Shvut Rahel community.  

“This application is shameful: it is a disgrace on the respondents, […] and  disgrace and on State Attorney General and State Prosecutor’s Office who dared to cooperate with this gross bunch of excuses,” wrote Michael Sfard and Shlomi Zecharia’s legal team defending the Palestinian landowners.

“The petitioners do not argue the importance of a peaceful eviction, but clarify that the state has been using this excuse to renege on its law enforcement duty in the outpost for four years, even before the judgment, when reality proves that the people of Amona refuse any offer,” they stated.

The petitioners claimed that the excuse provided by the government regarding alternative housing is unrealistic because its implementation is doomed to take much longer than seven months, and that the potential establishment of new settlements is contrary to international law that will be met with further petitions.  

“The fact is that once again the state is trying to skirt the judgments of the High Court of Justice regarding illegal construction by Israelis on land privately owned by Palestinians in occupied territory,” wrote the petitioners.

“Requesting postponement of deadlines for making decisions in this area have become to our utter shame the norm. An unacceptable norm that needs to be uprooted immediately before causing an irremediable wound to the rule of law,” they concluded.