Amona residents condemn moderated Regulation Law

Amona residents are urging Netanyahu and Bennett not to give up on saving their outpost from demolition.

Residents of the Amona outpost, which is scheduled to be demolished on December 25 in accordance with a 2014 Supreme Court ruling that found it to have been built on private Palestinian land, released a statement that condemned the moderated version of the proposed Regulation Law.

“This bill was supposed to solve the problem for the residents of Amona, Ofra and Derech Avot as well as to prevent an injustice to scores of families that built their homes as emissaries of the state,” the statement read.

“Unfortunately, [Jewish Home party chairman Naftali] Bennett and [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, who are prepared to pass the law and to deal with international threats, caved to the smallest of political threats from the Kulanu party.”

The Regulation Law in its original form would have retroactively legalized the Amona outpost as well as others in Judea and Samaria, which, like Amona, have been built without approval from Israel’s Civil Administration.

Clause 7, which references the Amona outpost, was removed earlier this week as it became clear that Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and his Kulanu party would not support the bill under any circumstance if it legalized Amona. Their objections revolved around concern that such a move would undermine the authority of Israel’s Supreme Court.

Bennett acquiesced to accepting the moderated version of the Regulation Law, but insisted that the bill remains as “the spearhead of (Israeli) sovereignty” in Judea and Samaria.  

The residents of Amona, however, are calling upon Bennett and Netanyahu to include the outpost in the bill’s final version.

“We expect the education minister and the prime minister not to give up, but rather to find a way to include Amona and other similar places within the legislation before the second and third readings,” the statement continued.

“We call on those faithful to the land of Israel, who have stood by us until today, to join us at the outpost until such time as the law is amended, or until the day of demolition,” it concluded.

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News