Israel evacuates West Bank outpost amid binge
the wind-swept hilltop to show their solidarity with residents.
Planting themselves inside trailer homes and the community’s synagogue, the protesters defied police, who carried some away. Protesters chained themselves to heavy objects or linked arms to form a wall against police, chanting “Jews don’t expel Jews!” Dozens of residents reluctantly left their homes without resistance, young children in tow.
“This is my home. I want to stay here. It is my right to stay here,” resident Tamar Nizri told Channel 2 TV news. “This is expulsion, destruction, an injustice and a crime. The most basic truth is that the Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel,” including the West Bank, she said.
Many of the settlers seemed to know that this may be a last eviction, saying that now Mr. Trump would support them. They were zealous in their resistance, but there was more the feeling they had lost a battle — even a skirmish — and not a war.
With some 250 residents, Amona is the largest of about 100 unauthorized outposts erected in the West Bank without formal permission but generally with tacit support from the Israeli government. It was the scene of violent clashes between settlers and security forces during a partial demolition exactly 11 years ago, on Feb. 1, 2006.
Those homes were found to be built on private Palestinian land. Israel’s Supreme Court later ruled in 2014 that the entire outpost was built on private Palestinian land and must be demolished, setting Feb. 8 as the final deadline after repeated delays.
In an apparent attempt to temper settler anger over the evacuation, Israel approved thousands of new settler homes a day before the outpost’s removal, signaling a ramping up of settlement construction under Mr. Trump, who has indicated he will be more accepting of Israeli settlement policies. The settler movement is a potent political force in Israel, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nationalist coalition government is dominated by settlers and their allies.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said some 3,000 officers were deployed to carry out the Amona evacuation.
They were met by 1,500 protesters who erected makeshift barricades from smashed tiles, rusty metal bars and large rocks to slow the police advance. Police said some 20 officers were slightly injured by stones or an unidentified liquid hurled at them and a dozen protesters were arrested. Hundreds of protesters were removed from the hill and more than half of the outpost’s roughly 40 families had left their homes by nightfall.
Protesters, who began arriving in the weeks ahead of the slated demolition, heckled officers and pleaded with them to refuse their orders. The evacuation was expected to drag into the night.
The evacuation marks the end of a yearslong legal battle by the Palestinians who own the land Amona was built on and witnessed repeated delays by the government to implement the court ruling.
Ahmad Majdalani, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, welcomed the evacuation, but said the other settlement moves were “meant to finally kill the twostate solution.”