Jerusalem: Residents of a wildcat Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank yesterday rejected a proposal to leave voluntarily, raising fears of violence as an evacuation deadline nears. The Amona outpost, home to some 40 families, is under a High Court order to be evacuated by December 25 since it was found to have been built on private Palestinian land in a case that has taken on international importance.
The residents' rejection led to concerns the army would move in imminently to clear them out, leading dozens of youths to stream into the hilltop outpost in windy and bitterly cold weather in the middle of the night. Many of them, alerted to the decision by social media, crowded into a small synagogue and dozed in sleeping bags on the floor, while others stayed in their cars or simply walked the streets.
After sunrise, some of the more extreme youths, wearing knitted Jewish skullcaps with sidelocks dangling, spread nails on roads along with stones and wooden poles. Several took up position on top of a water tower while waving an Israeli flag. They also hauled an empty dumpster with them for unclear reasons. A spokesman for Amona residents who has lived in the outpost for 14 years said they had not been given any notice of when an evacuation could happen.
Asked whether he was concerned that the youths' presence in the outpost would lead to violence, he said: "I'm worried about the government inflicting pain on people — needless pain."
"There is no difference between Amona and Tel Aviv," said Eli Greenberg, a 43-year-old father of eight, referring to Israel's economic capital located within its internationally recognised borders.
"There's no reason to take us out of here," he said as he sat on the front deck of his mobile home near a hillside planted with rows of olive trees.
The dispute over whether to demolish the outpost northeast of Ramallah has taken on international importance because of concern over settlement expansion in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967.
Israeli nationalist politicians, settlement advocates and Amona residents have resisted the move, and the international community is watching closely over whether the court order will be obeyed. All Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, are seen as illegal under international law, but Israel differentiates between those it has approved and those it has not.
