A rally to save Amona from destruction was held Thursday evening.
With participants marching from Ofra to Amona, thousands of civilians from all over the country called on Prime Minister BInyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beyteinu), Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home), and Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) to legalize all Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria and prevent the destruction of Amona.
Minister of Agriculture Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) said, "Mr. Prime Minister, the key to Amona is in your hands. While we honor leaders across the sea, while we honor legal advisors, the key to a solution is in your hands. We call upon you to use this key for the sake of Amona's residents, who represent a huge population and wish to stay in their homes - in this place - and we will not relent. We call upon you to allow these people to continue to build the settlement movement."
He also said, "Mr. Prime Minister, we need to say clearly: between the Jordan river and the mountain is one country, Israel. We must strengthen the settlement movement and all areas of Israel, the Golan, the Galilee, the Negev, and Judea and Samaria, everywhere."
Deputy Defense Minister MK Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home) said, "We were here on the eve of Yom Kippur, and we told Amona's residents: We promise to legalize all Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria. We will insist on legalizing them. If there is no legalization, there will be no government. We call upon Prime Minister Netanyahu: the responsibility is on your shoulders. We expect you to bring a solution, and there are solutions to legalize all of Judea and Samaria, including Amona. We will not give in. If it doesn't happen in the Knesset, we will bring the Regulation Law ourselves."
Samaria Regional Council Head Yossi Dagan added, "In two months, on Hanukkah, we will sing, 'We come to chase away darkness' - today in Amona, we come to chase away injustice. Here are people who, eleven years ago, were dupes and allowed themselves to be expelled, and it was done. We're not willing to be duped anymore.
"To all the hypocrites I say: Don't lecture us. Democracy is elections, and the nation chose a nationalist government. The government's law is not discriminatory, but here there is discrimination. In any other place in Israel, compensation - not expulsion or destruction - is given [in a case where there are land ownership claims after homes have been built] and only after it has been proven beyond all doubt that the building was built on private land. Only in Judea and Samaria are we at the bottom of the food chain. Even without definite proof of ownership, they insist on expelling us and destroying our homes. The extreme left lost the elections but is pushing for a second expulsion by abusing the legal system [to gain its ends]," Dagan said.
Avichai Boaron, CEO of Mateh Maavak, the organization coordinating the struggle to save Amona,turned to Netanyahu and said, "Look at the thousands who are standing here. There are hundreds of residents and several thousands of others from all over Israel. You're here in Amona on an important day, the day when the public is protesting the destruction of a Jewish town in Israel and the expulsion of tens of families, hundreds of children, from their homes. We are standing her to show that the terrible days of expulsions from Gush Katif are over, and so is the pogrom in Amona that happened a decade ago. Netanyahu, I say to you: This public has proved that Amona will not fall."