Israel: Court Says a Settlers’ Outpost Must Be Razed
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Version 0 of 1. After years of legal wrangling, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled late Thursday that the unauthorized Israeli settlement outpost of Amona in the West Bank must be evacuated and demolished within two years. Most of the world considers all settlement construction to be a violation of international law. Israel has established more than a hundred official settlements, but others have sprung up without official approval in recent decades. Amona, which was established in 1997 and is one of the oldest outposts, violated Israeli rules because most of it was built on privately owned Palestinian land. The courts have ordered the partial evacuation of Amona in the past, but action was postponed on various grounds. Michael Sfard, the legal adviser of Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, and one of the lawyers representing the Palestinian landowners, described the ruling as “a landmark in the struggle against the theft of Palestinian land in the West Bank.” |