Some 13 years after its establishment, and six years after the court case on the settlement’s legality began, all the residents of Migron, a large outposts in Judea and Samaria, arrived Sunday night at their local synagogue and signed an affidavit to be submitted to the court, committing to leave their homes voluntarily and without any forced eviction in three and a half years.
The daily Maariv reported that after weeks of negotiations between the outpost and Minister Benny Begin, who was appointed by the Prime Minister to coordinate the talks, residents announced at noon on Sunday, 20 days before the date set by the High Court for a full evacuation of their homes, that they are willing to sign the agreement.
Itai Harel, who founded the Migron in 1999, said at the signing: “They held a gun to our head. We have signed here an agreement that does not do justice. There is no one in the world who has shown proof of ownership of this land, and therefore this displacement will be unlawful.”
Under the agreement, immediately after receiving the High Court approval, an expedited process of planning an alternative neighborhood for the residents of Migron will commence. The new site will be built two kilometers away from the current position of the outpost.
As per their signed agreement, not later than the end of November 2015, all 48 families will move to permanent homes on state-owned land at their new location.
In recent weeks, negotiations almost broke down, after Minister Begin refused the residents’ insistence that in the time until November 2015, when the new neighborhood is slated to be completed, the state will conduct a re-examination of the actual legal status of the land on which the current Migron is standing, and if found to be used in the ground – an Israeli presence would remain in place.
The Migron campaign headquarters said that the residents acquiesced “with a heavy heart, but out of a sense of national responsibility to adhere to the Supreme Court rule,” and to avoid confrontation and “difficult scenes” with police. “We took upon ourselves the sad agreement, despite the forced renunciation and the pain inherent in being uprooted and evacuated from our settlement for no reason,” and without the opportunity to prove in civil court that they are, indeed, the legal owners.
The campaign also said that “Migron expresses confidence in the Israeli government and its representative, Minister Begin, that the solution being presented will stop confrontation between brothers.”