Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit
Attorney General Avichai MandelblitYonatan Zindel/Flash90

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has a new recommendation for Amona: permit the residents to rebuild the community on a stretch of land right next to the town's current site.

The town of Amona has been the center of a fiery debate, after the Supreme Court ordered its destruction by the end of 2016. Right-wing lawmakers are racing against time to find a solution for the doomed community.

Politicians thought they had it, when yesterday both MKs Yoav Kish (Likud) and MK Shuli Rafaeli-Muallem (Jewish Home) both proposed laws which would declare the disputed land legal, under a law from the 1950s.

However, after the Attorney General pointed out that the Supreme Court would strike them down, worsening the situation and potentially setting a legal precedent which could harm other communities, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ordered that they be taken off the Knesset's debate schedule.

After the decision was made, the Attorney General met with the heads of the coalition parties to discuss his plan.

According the Absentee Property Law, abandoned land may be appropriated by the state. Mandelblit's idea would legalize the area next to Amona for building, and transfer the town just a few meters over, in a process that would fully legalize it.

Until now, the residents of Amona fully rejected the idea of transferring their town to the area of Shiloh. Mandelblit hopes that, with the close proximity of the newly-planned site, the residents will acquiesce to the move.