Amona
AmonaAmona PR division

Binyamin Regional Council head Avi Roeh sent a letter to cabinet members and opposition MKs on Sunday, demanding that they block passage of the national budget if a law is not passed that normalizes the status of communities in Judea and Samaria threatened with demolition.

“[T]here is so much responsibility resting upon your shoulders. We can’t depend upon outside support. We need to demand actions.”

Roeh emphasized that in Judea and Samaria, there are thousands of homes, sponsored by different branches of the government, that are built upon land whose ownership is contested.

“We are talking about thousands of citizens who are pure of heart who have invested their savings in the properties and, often, purchased them from the State. Their houses are still in danger of being demolished and, thus, cannot be completed. As you probably know, several groups on the left bypassed democracy in order to protest this conduction by issuing several appeals to the Supreme Court against settlement in Judea and Samaria."

The letter continued to explain that “Today there are several pending court orders on settlement demolitions. The village of Amona is set to be demolished by year's end, along with 9 houses in Ofra set to be demolished by February 2017, and a recent court order to demolish 17 permanent structures in Gush Etzion.”

He added that, “the government is in a slow process of its unilateral disengagement in Judea and Samaria.”

He explained that the state should not accept a situation whereby the Supreme Court is implementing its own plan to withdraw from Judea and Samaria. He clarified that the matter is social and political and should be handled by those elected to government.

The letter stated that, “The people chose a national right-wing government that would continue to develop the settlements and not implement their destruction.” Roeh explained that the government that was elected on this platform must fulfill its mandate and must work to pass legislation normalizing the status of towns in Judea and Samaria."