The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) said that around 120 dunums of Palestinian lands in Silwad town to the east of Ramallah city in the central West Bank will be confiscated and allocated for the settlers evacuated from Amona outpost.
The mayor of Silwad Abdulrahman Saleh said that the IOA notified the village’s municipality of the confiscation of the lands owned by Palestinian citizens who have official documents proving that.
The Quds Press news agency said that Saleh warned on Monday of an Israeli scheme to relocate Amona settlers in Silwad. The municipality of Silwad filed an objection against the measure with an Israeli court.
He pointed out that the inhabitants of Silwad previously foiled two Israeli schemes to seize lands in the town after proving their ownership of the lands and that they are not state or absentee lands.
However the mayor said that there are great concerns about the relocation of Amona settlers and their caravans to the confiscated lands especially that the court’s ruling may take months or years to be issued.
Amona outpost built on a private Palestinian land to the northeast of Ramallah city is inhabited by 40 Jewish families and considered an illegal settlement according to the international and Israeli laws.
Amona issue has ranked at the top of the Israeli government’s agenda in the recent weeks due to which many internal conflicts have emerged trying to find a solution that prevents the evacuation of the outpost. These conflicts led minister of education Naftali Bennett and his party “The Jewish Home” to abstain from supporting draft laws presented by the government.
Yedioth Ahronoth Hebrew newspaper said that 45 settlers from Amona outpost agreed on a compromise solution formula proposed by the Israeli government while 29 settlers opposed it. According to this proposal every family who lived in the settlement before 25th December 2014 will be given one million shekels as compensation.
