The Knesset Constitution Committee held a heated debate today (Wednesday) regarding attempts to avert the demolition of the Samarian town of Amona.
Amota is slated for demolition in approximately six months due to outstanding claims of ownership on the land on which it is built.
Committee Chairman MK Nissan Slomiansky (Jewish Home) was forced to throw out MKs Osama Saadi (Joint Arab List), and Shuli Mualem-Refaeli (Jewish Home), who were arguing disruptively.
MK Slomiansky had objected to the term "Supreme Court bypass law" being applied to certain plans for saving Amona, saying that in reality every law passed by the Knesset directs the Supreme Court how to rule.
"I call on the government to make clear decisions. Calling it a "Court bypassing law" is ridiculous. We pass laws, whatever law we accept the Supreme Court will accept as well without gutting it. They also said we'll have peace after the disengagement in 2005, and it was all the opposite," said Slomiansky while expressing the hope that Amona will be resolved and its residents allowed to remain on the land.
"Judea and Samaria were always our home. Hevron, Beit-El, and Amona are an inseparable part of the land of Israel, they are exactly like Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan, and just like in every other place in the country matters of his sort solutions were found, whether by monetary compensation or giving replacement land, so too should there be a solution in Amona. Even more so, because in Amona there isn't even a land owner who has his own concrete claim for ownership of the land.
"I strenuously oppose the desire to destroy Amona that we see. Remember that it was established with the encouragement of the government at the time. We can and must reach a satisfactory solution," Slomiansky declared.
MK Mualem-Refaeli said during the debate that "there are political bodies that are funded by the European Union and are trying to gain political objectives under the guise of human rights. I ask, who are these land owners? Where are they? Not one person has yet arrived to claim that the land actually belongs to him.
"You want to claim that these towns were established in sin, but they were established from an ideal of returning to the land, and with the support of Israeli governments over the years. The image of Jews being thrown out of their homes will not repeat itself 11 years after the disengagement from Gaza."
The MK claims that Amona will be resolved, and that this is the purpose of the proposed "Resolution Law", regardless of claims that it won't get by the Supreme Court. "However, we must bear in mind that there will be cases where the law will be inapplicable, and we'll have to find other solutions," Mualem-Refaeli concluded.