The Netanyahu
Government, as it behaved during the tragic massive fire disaster, is
continuing to placate the extremist right wing camp by using this tragedy and
the Amona illegal settlement for currying favor with the neo-fascist right - the extremist right wing religious settler-oriented
Zionist movement.
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| A view of the Jewish outpost community of Amona. (Noam Moskowitz/Flash90) |
While the fires were
raging throughout the country, many unproved accusations of causing the fires
were uttered against Israel’s Arab citizens. The Interior Minister, Shas
Party’s Arye Deri, was one of those who threatened and clucked the most,
followed by Education Minister, Naftali Bennett, and a plethora of echoes
coming from the Likud Party with Netanyahu also making accusatory statements against Israel’s
Arab citizens.
As mentioned in my last
article, Israel’s Arab leaders condemned the fires and many Arab citizens had
opened their homes to receive those, who had lost their homes in the blaze,
irrespective of whether they were Arabs or Jews. Apart from that, many Israeli
Arab citizens were involved in firefighting and rescue operations, including
the Palestinian Authority that had sent four fire fighting units to help put
out the fires.
The blaze was started by
negligence, including the burning of refuse that had no connection with terror,
and it is still unclear as to whether in fact there was Palestinian arson
involved to the extent that the government claimed. The suspects are under
investigation and some have even been released by the police. The exaggerated
claims of arson by the right wing government were politically motivated to a
large extent. The Income Tax Authorities will compensate the
fire victims if the cause of the fire was terrorism. What will happen to those, whose homes were
destroyed because of negligence that was not their fault?
“Amona (Hebrew: עמונה) is an Israeli
outpost in
the central West Bank. Located on a hill overlooking Ofra within the municipal
boundaries of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, the village was founded in
1995 on privately owned Palestinian land. As of 2012, its population was around
200.[1] As of October 2013, the outpost lodged 42
families.[2]
The High Court of Israel ruled in 2006 that the settlement is illegal
under Israeli law,[3] but as of March 2013, its status remained
unresolved as the Israeli government continued to fight the court's eviction
order. In May 2014 an Israeli police investigation revealed the entire outpost
lay on private Palestinian land, and that documents used by settlers to claim
they had purchased the sites were forged.[4] In December 2014, the Israeli High Court
ordered the state to completely evacuate and demolish the settlement within two
years.[5] The international community considers all
Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government
disputes this.[6]” From Wikipedia
History seems to be repeating itself with
Amona. Despite its evacuation
in February, 2006, the government closed its eyes to its rebuilding and is now
due to be evacuated again. It has only 42 families. The government must carry out the High Court decision on evacuation and cease undermining it!
Now the Israeli
Government is doing its best to postpone the inevitable evacuation of this
illegal outpost by even trying to make laws that undermine the Israeli Supreme Court decision on its
evacuation on 25th December 2016 A sad day is approaching when this self-righteous right wing
Netanyahu Government does its utmost to undermine Israeli Supreme Court’s rulings by approving the Settlement Regulation Bill that is super right wing as well as being
religious, extremist and settler-friendly.
At the same time, people
(over 1700 families) whose legal homes in various towns in Israel were destroyed
by the recent widespread fires will be subjected to a tyrannical, inefficient
bureaucracy to get compensation for their property loss and extensive damage. However, the latest news on this controversial
Settlement Regulation Bill is that it has been shelved for the time being due
to severe differences of opinion within the
government coalition.
These people should be
given top priority in getting compensation rather than the 42 families settled
on an outpost that is stolen Palestinian land. Politics of the extreme right
wing in Israel is great stuff to increase support for the right wing Government
coalition at the expense of vulnerable citizens in Israel, who deserve far
more. The Israeli Supreme Court made a decision and the government, for the
sake of cheap political, populist gains is doing all in its power to prevent the decision of transferring the
settlers to another place. The latest development in this story is a request by the
Netanyahu Government to the High Court for postponement of evacuation by a
month. They had two years in which to evacuate. The Government took no heed
of the High Court decision on this matter. In panic they started drafting bills
to prevent the inevitable at the last minute. As mentioned earlier in this
article, the Bill was shelved at the last moment.
If this controversial bill would have been
passed into law, it would have resulted in Israel being taken to the ICC. The latest in this futile Amona debacle, is that after Netanyahu and Bennett reached compromise removing the controversial Clause 7, and despite Attorney General’s warnings that new draft still contains components contravening international and Israeli law, bill passes preliminary reading in the Knesset by 60-49 following a stormy debate.
The building of Israeli settlements in the
occupied territories is illegal. There is an international consensus on this. If this were not
the case, Amona as well as other similar outposts would not be threatened with
evacuation. Even the Israeli High Court has ruled that these outposts are
illegal. If this is the case then it is incumbent on Israel’s Legal Authorities
to ensure that Amona is evacuated. Any form of manipulation by the Israeli
Government preventing the court order of evacuation is illegal and will create
serious problems for Israel’s image as a law abiding country and this will endanger
Israel’s democracy.
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