The state on Tuesday petitioned the Supreme Court again to postpone by 45 days the evacuation of the Amona community in Samaria, until February 8, 2017, Walla reported. The purpose of the new request, submitted following the approval vote by the Amona residents for a new eviction outline, is to allow for carrying out the court-ordered eviction in an orderly fashion. The court gave the plaintiffs, represented by abti-Zionist NGO Yesh Did, one day to respond.
The appeal to the Supreme Court was done upon a request from Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Liberman, with the consent of AG Madelblit and State Attorney Nitzan. The petition states that given the complexity, sensitivity and explosiveness than normally accompany the expulsion of a community the size of Amona, with its 40 families and about 200 children, the state has invested efforts in finding a solution that would enable the removal of the residents using peaceful means, keeping to a minimum the harm to the families.
The postponement is required to complete the location of temporary lodging solutions for the Amona residents, as well as to the examination of the legal status of lot 38, which the state had originally considered to be abandoned land and now an Arab resident of Silwad has come up with a claim on 90% of the site.
The state declared that this is its final request for a postponement, and that it is determined not to ask for yet another delay, even should it become apparent that the new outline cannot be applied come February 8.
Yesh Din issued a vehement response to the postponement request, which probably sounds better in Arabic: “The state’s request to delay the evacuation of Amona is based on a corrupt deal between the government of Israel and lawbreakers, which constitutes a surrender to the blackmailing by a those who have been obliged by a court order to vacate the land they had invaded.”