Amona residents blast Jewish Home over deal to relocate community, abandon demands to retroactively apply Regulation Law.
Why can’t it be retroactive to protect Amona?
By David Rosenberg, ARUTZ SHEVA
Amona residents and their supporters expressed dismay Monday morning at the deal worked out between Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu which would pass the Regulation Law – but without a critical clause necessary to save Amona.
The tentative agreement, worked out Sunday evening, would ensure the passage of the Regulation Law, normalizing Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and protecting them from land ownership disputes.
As part of the deal, however, Bennett surrendered a key Jewish Home demand, that the law include a so-called “Amona clause”, which would give retroactive protection, thus preventing the destruction of Amona, which is slated for demolition by December 25th.
Instead, the two agreed to apply the Absentee Property Law to a number of plots nearby the town’s current location. Under this framework, Amona residents would be evacuated, their homes relocated to an alternative site on the same hill, and the new location given protection under the Regulation Law.
While Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, one of the Regulation Law’s backers, praised the deal, calling it “an extraordinary historic achievement,” residents of Amona called the move an act of betrayal.
In a statement to supporters Monday afternoon, the Amona Resistance Council blasted the Jewish Home, saying they had abandoned the community by taking the easy way out.
“Amona woke up to a difficult morning. They [the political leadership] betrayed us in the end. Once again the [country’s] leaders have shown themselves to be little apparatchiks. Once again they chose to close a deal rather than to break new ground – at our expense of course.”
“Now they’re going to try to present the destruction of Amona as an achievement…we’re not buying it.”
Rabbi Yair Frank, who serves as the town’s spiritual leader, also condemned the deal, noting that the residents themselves were never consulted.
“What is important to understand here is that this is not an acceptable solution for the community, this is something that the residents of Amona cannot live with,” Rabbi Frank told Radio Kol Hai on Monday. We demand that the town be normalized in its [present] location.”
“If the government and the Knesset accept the logic of compensation rather than evictions,” continued Rabbi Frank, referencing the Regulation Law, “then there is no real problem to make it retroactive as well. Why can’t this include Amona?”
“This solution is not a solution, it’s a disgrace.”
Kahlon would not vote for Regulations bill with Article 7 in it (Amona provision). So that meant it could not pass. He did not want to undercut Supreme Court was his rationale. I am not advocating his rationale but explaining his position.
Bibi I understand would have gone along with article 7 in the bill (can not be positive but this is the understanding).
So they are passing the rest of bill which actually is a very good thing because it protects all the outposts in Judah/Samaria on non-state land if they had been built with government approval (direct or implied). The Prime Minister has gone along with this. Bennett and his party were the primary movers but almost the whole of the Likud MKs backed it short of Benny Begin who did not vote with the coalition and is now suspended for three weeks (this would not happen with Bibi’s approval by the way).
This bill is actually clearing the way for annexation or applying Israeli law to Area C , because it is doing this is part. A decent start.
For years before the last election I was on the fence about BB. I said before the election that the way he conducts it, the cabinet he chooses and his actions will prove who he is…. he undercut the right wing, he chose anti zionists like yaalon, erdan, mandebilt, rivlin… all who jumped up to decalre jews burned babies and soldiers murdered terrorists, incarcerated nationalist jews under false pretenses, dumped E1, etc etc etc. Over time it was apparent that he was an obstruction to naitonalists and settlers rather than a leader of them.
the article does not explain why the two right wing settler supporters need to negotiate to protect amona…. obviously it is BB who is demanding that amona is destroyed rather than to fight for it tooth and nail. Beware of anything that BB promises for the future to the right wing… it rarely occurs.
so, why is BB ngotiating for, fighting for, the destruction of Amona and the driving of jews from their homes???? After all this is the same BB who has been quietly under the table, surreptitiously, giving land to muslims to build their cities in area C and looking the other way to facilitate euro illegal building of muslim homes… no big battle there…. BB was all for it… he is always all for driving out Jews and settling muslims… I am still waiting for the E1 fraud that he promised… he spoke the lies and got the votes…. and then … sha
The last people who should be disagreeing on amona are right wing govs. Notice how a right wing gov is just a holding pattern… no real advancement on behalf of the right, the settlers, the nationalists… just holding the situation in status quo to hand over to a left wing gov who undoubetedly would be active in their left wing agenda. Why does a right wing gov for 8 years simply maintain a status quo… maintain a holding pattern? What they are doing is holding back the right wing until they can get a left wing gov.
prove me wrong, ask BB to speak these words:
“JEWISH SETTLEMENT IN JUDEA SAMARIA IS LEGAL AND LEGITIMATE”
everything one needs to know about BB is contained in his refusing to utter those words in all his years.. he offers deals, promises, negotiations, announcements, dramas, red line charts, obama scares, etc etc etc… nothing happens of any significance… the Jews are still maintained behind their ghetto walls and those that ventured out are stalked by their own leaders. In fact, under BB he has managed remove ALL discussion of new jewish settlements outside the ghetto boundaries…. he has driven the jewish mind back into the ghetto to commiserate as to whether they are even allowed to build in their ghetto. Now the jews are lucky to hope for jerusaalem and the ghetto, he took area C off the table of discussion, remvove it from the Israeli psyche… quite a feat. I used to remember folks discussing the possibility of new settlements outside the ghetto boundaries before BB. After each drama a sigh of relief is uttered that the great protector save the jews from the evil phantom monster (obama, euros, etc)
BB cannot utter those words because if he did Israelis might wake up and demand that he implement them.