As efforts to find a judicial solution that would permit the state to normalize the status of Amona gain steam, the Civil Administration has apparently raised objections to the proposed moves during a meeting with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.
According to sources present at the hearing, held in Mandelblit’s office Thursday afternoon, the Civil Administration, which governs the areas in Judea and Samaria under Israeli control, rejected plans to use Israel’s Absentee Property law to remove questions regarding Amona’s legal status.
Amona, a community of some 40 families north of Jerusalem in Samaria, is slated for demolition by the end of 2016.
Officials at Thursday’s hearing told Arutz Sheva that “the Civil Administration is hampering normalization of Amona, and claims that there is no [zoning] plan solution to the [legal] question.”
Despite this, however, Mandelblit did grant the committee charged with finding a path to normalized status for Amona an extra week to come up with a possible legal solution.
Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) praised Mandelblit following the hearing.
“The decision of the Attorney General to permit a planning review for the establishment of Amona in the uncontested plots of land is justified and necessary.”
Of the 35 plots of land upon which the homes in Amona are built, Arabs have claimed, but not proved, ownership over 24. The Attorney General has suggested that those homes built upon the 24 contested parcels may be relocated within Amona to the unclaimed land, effectively ending the dispute over the town’s legal status.
“The residents of Amona were sent there to settle by the state, and there is no reason why the buildings cannot be moved to the area which is not under dispute,” added Ariel. “That being said, it is important to emphasize that an arrangement like this [for Amona] does not solve the larger problem for other towns for which we need legislation [resolving their status]; so we’ll continue to push for a law that will provide a comprehensive solution and justice.”
Experts claimed after the meeting that bureaucratic processes involved in authorizing the relocations may not be completed in time to prevent the homes' destruction.