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Israeli Minister: ‘From the ruins of Amona, we will build’

As the Jewish community of Amona was set to be evacuated on Wednesday, Bennett said that new legislation will prevent similar occurrences in future.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, chairman of the Knesset’s Jewish Home party, insisted that Israel will build throughout Judea and Samaria from the ruins of Wednesday’s evacuation of Amona, a Jewish community located a short drive north of Jerusalem in the Binyamin region.

“From the ruins of Amona we will build a new settlement,” Bennett said, addressing the Knesset plenum on Wednesday. “From its wreckage we will erect kindergartens all over Judea and Samaria.”

The original version of proposed legislation, known as the “Regulation Law,” would have prevented the evacuation of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, such as Amona, which have been found by Israel’s High Court to have been built on private Palestinian land. In light of concerns from coalition members that the original version threatened the legitimacy of Israel’s High Court, Bennett acquiesced to a moderated version of the bill that allowed for Amona’s evacuation to proceed.

Nevertheless, Bennett contended that the bill’s newer version will prevent such a scenario from recurring in other communities in Judea and Samaria.

“The ‘settlement bill’ that will be passed next week will end the legal displacement system,” Bennett insisted, referring to the reintroduction of the moderated version of the Regulation Law.

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“From the legal defeat (on Amona) we will establish a new legal regime that will regulate all of the settlements, and from this loss we will start applying the sovereignty of the State of Israel all over Judea and Samaria.”

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News