Naftali Bennett
Naftali BennettYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

The Mattot Arim grassroots organization has called on Education Minister Naftali Bennett, and his supporters, to spare no effort to save the threatened Jewish town of Amona – and certainly not to suffice with political excuses.

Bennett, head of the religious-Zionist Jewish Home party – a senior partner in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's coalition government – said on Monday that he does not see how the destruction of Amona can be stopped. The Supreme Court has ordered the entire community to be razed by the end of 2016 because unidentified Arabs claim some of the land as their own.

Netanyahu has said that he refuses to consider a law to negate the Court's ruling.

"We currently have only eight Knesset seats," Bennett told a gathering in Ofra, the "parent" town of nearby Amona, "and we do not see how we can legally save Amona. When we get 30 seats, then we'll be able to do what Menachem Begin did when he passed the Golan Law."

His colleague in the party leadership, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, has said specifically that the party will not quit the government over this issue. This, despite the fears of many that Amona might be the first domino to fall in the left-wing lawfare campaign against the entire Jewish settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria.

"We are the mother and father of the families living in the homes designated for destruction," Bennett said, "and we will search for a solution so that when that terrible night comes, they will have a place to put their heads. I know this is not what you had hoped to hear, but I must tell you the truth."

Mattot Arim is not having any of it. "Bennett has shown himself to be far too preoccupied over the blame game," the organization stated, "[regarding whether] he or the Likud be blamed if G-d forbid Amona falls. He should instead focus exclusively on finding a governmental solution so that Amona does not fall."

Yaakov (Ketzaleh) Katz, former head of the National Union party (which merged two election campaigns ago with the Jewish Home to form the present-day Jewish Home party) said that by not quitting the government, Bennett is hurting himself and the religious-Zionist public: "Netanyahu is laying a trap for Bennett, ensuring that he remains in the government while it sends bulldozers to destroy Amona. Bennett will thus lose major face with his voters, and the party will suffer in the next election season."

Mattot Arim calls on the public to email or fax Bennett and the other Jewish Home MKs and request that they not provide excuses, but rather continue the fight for Amona without tiring.