Some Amona residents are relieved at a recommendation of the government’s Outpost Regulation Committee to solve the problem of their village’s imminent demolition by moving its few dozen Jews to abandoned Palestinian land adjacent to the outpost. Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit conceded that although the idea raised serious legal issues, there was no reason not to examine the proprietary status of the adjacent area.
If the plan is adopted, the terms of Israel’s Absentee Landowner Law will allow the Amona residents to live in movable homes on the land for renewable three year periods and pay rent to a fund payable to the landowners if they ever reappear with proof of ownership.
A number of Amona residents rejected the solution, saying that the responsibility for solving the problem lay with the political leadership and that it should simply pass a bill to retroactively approve the existing outpost. This would solve their problem as well as the problem of two thousand others living in similarly problematic outposts, they said in a statement.
The Supreme Court ordered Amona to be evacuated by December 25 after alleged Palestinian owners of part of its land sued for its return with the help of the left-wing Yesh Din organization.
David Steger – Matzav.com Israel
