Israeli settler outpost removed; 3,000 new units on way

By Kaamil Ahmed

JERUSALEM (AA) - At least 16 Israeli policemen were injured in clashes with hardline Israeli settlers after an illegal settler outpost was dismantled in the Israel-occupied West Bank on Wednesday, according to police.

Young settlers, many of whom had come from settlements elsewhere in the West Bank to protest the eviction, poured oil onto roads leading to the Amona outpost and blocked them with stones, metal spikes and burning tires.

"Policemen are about to knock down my door and… put us on a bus and kick us out," Eli Greenberg, a 43-year-old settler and father of eight who has lived in Amona for 13 years, said.

Greenberg said the Amona outpost symbolized the strength of Israel’s settler movement, which, he said, had been galvanized by the presidency of Donald Trump in the U.S., who has so far refrained from criticizing Israel's settlement-building activities.

"Donald Trump assuming power in the U.S. was a great surprise," he said.

"The effects will be felt in Israel as well," he added. "Americans voted for Trump because they are sick of political corruption in the U.S. and losing their American identity… We feel the same pain here."

Shilo Adler, who heads the influential Yesha Council settler group, agreed, saying the new U.S. administration offered a "historic" opportunity to step up Israeli settlement-building in the West Bank.

While some outpost residents appeared resigned to the court-ordered eviction, others threw their belongings onto the roofs of their homes in an effort to hinder the eviction process.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said some 600 settlers from outside Amona had come to protest the eviction.

After a lengthy standoff, groups of police physically carried settler youths -- who had barricaded themselves inside their homes -- away from the outpost.

According to Rosenfeld, seven arrests were made, despite attempts by police to persuade settler families to leave peacefully.

-New housing units

Ahead of the eviction, the Israeli government on Tuesday approved construction of 3,000 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank -- a move the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said negated the closure of Amona.

"The Israeli government replaced 42 caravans [in Amona] with 3,000 settlement units in 24 hours," PLO official Xavier Abu Eid tweeted, describing the move as "an incentive for more theft of Palestinian land".

Hardline Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, for his part, criticized Wednesday’s eviction of settlers, saying Israel should annex the entire West Bank.

Israel’s High Court had initially ruled that the outpost be dismantled, saying it had been built on private Palestinian land.

The court order was suspended, however, after the government struck a deal with the settlers for the peaceful evacuation of the outpost in return for them being allowed to build on nearby land, which they claimed had been abandoned -- an assertion challenged by local Palestinians.

The court ultimately overturned the deal to resettle Amona residents in the nearby area after Palestinians claimed ownership of the land in question.

While all Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank is illegal under international law, outposts are also considered illegal under Israeli law because they are built without the state's official approval.