Israeli occupants of illegal West Bank outpost agree to relocate

The 40 families living in Amona have agreed to be relocated,
avoiding a clash with government forces

Peter Beaumont in Amona
Sunday 18 December 2016 20.02 GMT

A group of hardline Jewish settlers, who have been living in an unauthorised West Bank outpost, say they have accepted an Israeli government proposal to evacuate the site, apparently ending the potential for a violent confrontation.

The 40 or so families who live in the rough-and-ready hilltop outpost of Amona, built illegally on private Palestinian land, have been at the centre of a years-long court battle.

More recently Amona has turned into a symbol for the wider settlement movement, prompting highly controversial legislation in the Israeli Knesset to retroactively legalise dozens of other similar outposts.

That law – which does not include Amona – still needs to win two more parliamentary votes to pass and ultimately could be overturned by the Supreme Court, where it is expected to face legal challenges by settlement opponents.

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