Amona
AmonaAmona PR division

According to the recently-reached agreement between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, the residents of Amona would move from their current homes to an adjacent parcel under the Absentee Property Law, in which the government takes over the administration of land whose owners are not interested or not capable of taking action to prevent it. They would live there for several months until new homes in a neighborhood in Shilo, 40 kilometers away, would be ready for them.

The residents of Amona have rejected this agreement and have published a letter detailing their objections.

The main text of the letter is as follows:

“Oh, what a difficult day for us!”

1) We already know that if Naftali Bennett and Binyamin Netanyahu would insist that the Kulanu party honor coalition discipline to vote for the agreement, then Amona would remain on the map and 200 children and their parents would not be uprooted from their homes.

2) The Regulation Law came into being in recent months first and foremost to solve the problem of the residents of Amona, Ofra, and the Path of the Patriarchs (ed.- Netiv Avot near Elazar in Gush Etzion) and to prevent the terrible injustice to the many families who built their homes with the support of the Israeli governments.

3) Unfortunately, Bennett and Netanyahu, who are now ready to pass the Regulation Law and stand up against the international threats (from the International Court of Justice and the UN Security Council) have folded under the empty political threats of the Kulanu party for reasons that are not clear to us.

4) We reject with both hands the imaginary solution under the Absentee Property Law. The plan is disconnected from reality and does not take into account the size of the community, its makeup, its public and educational institutions, the nature of the community and its agriculture, or anything related to Amona. They’re talking about putting us in a very small area – a ghetto – and are trying to compress the life of an entire community under a sword of uncertainty and with a temporary status still hanging over us. They are creating a program whose purpose is to throw sand in the eyes of the public and blunt the injustice that’s being done here. We are again being asked to pay in cash in exchange for unfounded promises for the future.

5) Even still, there is a possibility for a solution. Despite the sense of missed opportunity, not to mention abandonment, we still expect the Education Minister and the Prime Minister not to give up, and to instead take a lead in integrating real solutions into this law prior to its second and third readings in the Knesset that will include Amona and other places that are under similar threat (ed.- where the courts have already handed down the decision to destroy the community).

6) We call on you, all who love the Land of Israel, to join us and stand at our side to either fix the law or, God forbid, when the time comes, to bring about widespread popular protest against the intention to destroy a Jewish community and forcibly transfer its families.

We are continuing to absorb people and call on our friends to come and stand at our side. We reiterate that if, God forbid, it comes to this difficult moment, then we will show that the painful forced evacuation was the responsibility of the Prime Minister and the Education Minister and their helplessness.

7) We are confident that once the leaders see the mobilization of the public, they will come to their senses and include Amona in the law. We are continuing the struggle. Amona will not fall again.