Shomron Council Head Urges PM to Move on New Settlement

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should be congratulated for announcing that a new settlement will be established for evictees from Amona, but an announcement was not enough, said Shomron Council head Yossi Dagan on Motzoei Shabbos. Dagan urged the prime minister to take steps to immediately begin building the new settlement.

“After 25 years it is wonderful that a new settlement is to be set up, and we will not allow bureaucrats or others to get in the way,” said Dagan. “Setting up a new settlement is as moral an act as possible, we cannot abandon our brave brothers and sisters at this time.”

In the aftermath of the final eviction of some three dozen families from Amona last week, Defense Ministry workers packed up the belongings of the families who stayed until they were forcibly carried out of their homes. Many spent their first homeless Shabbos as the guests of a girl’s seminary in Ofra, where they will stay until they make other arrangements.

Although the evacuations were largely calm and nonviolent, they were still very difficult, said Dagan. “During the evictions, I passed through Amona with several MKs who were there to gauge the mood of people and to ensure that things did not get out of control on either side. The sights I saw returned me back 11 and a half years,” to 2006, when Amona was partially evacuated amid heavy violence. “We now have to strengthen ourselves and build even more in Yehudah and Shomron, and establish the new settlement as our response to these events.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced the construction of as many as 6,000 new homes in Yehudah and Shomron over the past week, with the latest announced Wednesday by Netanyahu, to replace the homes of residents of Amona. Commenting on those announcements, the office of Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said that “things are getting back to normal in Yehudah and Shomron,” while Netanyahu’s office said that “Israel has been building and will continue to build.”