Amid clashes and pleading by residents, Israeli police on Wednesday began the forcible evacuation of the Amona outpost in the West Bank. Although the government has promised more settler homes, the rift is set to deepen.
Image: Reuters/R. Zvulun
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"This is our promised land. It belongs to us. It is a very difficult day," said Meir, a young Israeli, leaning out of a window of a mobile home in the settlement outpost of Amona. Behind him, a group of young men are busy preparing for the police to enter the house at any moment. Like Meir, most of them came to Amona in recent weeks to support the 42 settler families living on this hilltop and to protest their court-ordered eviction.
"We don't see how a Jew can take another Jew away from this land," said Meir, who didn't want to be further identified. In the freezing cold, the mostly young protesters had barricaded themselves inside mobile homes. By midday, different police units, without heavy riot gear, were slowly moving into the outpost. The main street leading up to the hilltop settlement was covered in slippery oil and nails, apparently to keep the security forces away.
An eviction order was issued on Tuesday, calling on the residents to leave within 48 hours. "Shame on you," protesters shouted at the officers, while others pleaded with them to ignore the orders. In other places, scuffles broke out. Protesters had put up barricades with rocks and old chairs, tires burned and stones were thrown at the security forces. "We have 3,000 police officers involved in the area. All the units have been preparing for weeks for this operation," Micky Rosenfeld, press spokesman for the Israeli police, told DW. "We are working carefully and cautiously to make sure the area is evacuated based on the court order that was made." In 2006, when nine homes in Amona were demolished, hundreds of protesters and police were hurt in fierce clashes.
Settlers set up roadblocks in an attempt to prevent their evictionImage: Reuters/R. Zvulun
Amona – a longstanding legal battle
The demolition of Amona has been in the making for over a decade. In 2014, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that Amona was built on private Palestinian land. Palestinian landowners from neighboring villages had petitioned the High Court to claim their land. In Silwad, some of the Palestinian landowners were looking forward to this day. But the question remains whether they can actually return. "It was a difficult day for everybody," says Gilad Grossman, spokesman of Yesh Din, the Israeli human rights group representing them in court. "But when we filed the petition in 2008, our goal was to let them return to their land and we hope that this will now happen."
Amona is one of the largest of about 100 "unauthorized" settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank. Outposts are built without permission, but usually tolerated by the government. Most of the international community considers the Jewish settlements in the West Bank to be illegal and an obstacle to peace. With the first eviction deadline approaching on December 25 last year, the government announced it had reached a deal with the residents and promised that 24 families could move to a plot nearby. Others would be hosted in the nearby settlement of Ofra. In return, the families pledged to leave peacefully. However, the move to an adjacent plot was again challenged by Yesh Din. Palestinians claimed ownership of this plot as well. On Wednesday evening, the High Court accepted the petition, effectively cancelling the agreement.
An Israeli settler stands next to a pile of burning furnitureImage: Getty Images/AFP/J. Guez
Government vow more settlement building
Amona has proved to be a big challenge to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition government. In an apparent move to appease the angry settler community, the government announced plans late Tuesday to build 3,000 more settler homes in the occupied West Bank. In addition, the so-called "Legalization Bill," which was sponsored by the ultra-nationalist Jewish Home party, might also be up for a vote in the Knesset next week. The highly controversial bill could retroactively legalize outposts like Amona, although it is likely that the High Court might strike it down. Throughout the day, right wing politicians called it a "difficult day" and vowed more settlement building in return.
But the political promises did not seem to temper the anger among residents and protesters. "Everybody who came here wants to stress the deep connection between the people of Israel and this land," says Zvi Sukkot, who said he coordinated the protesters. The 26-year old said most people were deeply disappointed with the government. "We are here to protest loudly because the Israeli government is destroying a Jewish community in the land of Israel."
The sentiment of betrayal was echoed by others in the outpost. By the evening, over half of the 42 families were evacuated, according to the police, some by force, while others left voluntarily. Dozens of police and protesters sustained light injuries. In Amona, the settlers remained defiant. "We just want to tell the world – it won't be easy for you," said one of the protesters. "Next time, don't do it. Think again before you do it."
A history of the Middle East peace process
For over half a century, disputes between Israelis and Palestinians over land, refugees and holy sites remain unresolved. DW gives you a short history of when the conflict flared and when attempts were made to end it.
UN Security Council Resolution 242, 1967
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, passed on November 22, 1967, called for the exchange of land for peace. Since then, many of the attempts to establish peace in the region have referred to 242. The resolution was written in accordance with Chapter VI of the UN Charter, under which resolutions are recommendations, not orders.
Image: Getty Images/Keystone
Camp David Accords, 1978
A coalition of Arab states, led by Egypt and Syria, fought Israel in the Yom Kippur or October War in October 1973. The conflict eventually led to the secret peace talks that yielded two agreements after 12 days. This picture from March 26, 1979, shows Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, his US counterpart Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin after signing the accords in Washington.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/B. Daugherty
The Madrid Conference, 1991
The US and the former Soviet Union came together to organize a conference in the Spanish capital. The discussions involved Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinians — not from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) — who met with Israeli negotiators for the first time. While the conference achieved little, it did create the framework for later, more productive talks.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Hollander
Oslo I Accord, 1993
The negotiations in Norway between Israel and the PLO, the first direct meeting between the two parties, resulted in the Oslo I Accord. The agreement was signed in the US in September 1993. It demanded that Israeli troops withdraw from West Bank and Gaza Strip and a self-governing, interim Palestinian authority be set up for a five-year transitional period. A second accord was signed in 1995.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Sachs
Camp David Summit Meeting, 2000
US President Bill Clinton invited Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat to the retreat in July 2000 to discuss borders, security, settlements, refugees and Jerusalem. Despite the negotiations being more detailed than ever before, no agreement was concluded. The failure to reach a consensus at Camp David was followed by renewed Palestinian uprising, the Second Intifada.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Edmonds
The Arab Peace Initiative, 2002
The Camp David negotiations were followed first by meetings in Washington and then in Cairo and Taba, Egypt — all without results. Later the Arab League proposed the Arab Peace Initiative in Beirut in March 2002. The plan called on Israel to withdraw to pre-1967 borders so that a Palestinian state could be set up in the West Bank and Gaza. In return, Arab countries would agree to recognize Israel.
Image: Getty Images/C. Kealy
The Roadmap, 2003
The US, EU, Russia and the UN worked together as the Middle East Quartet to develop a road map to peace. While Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas accepted the text, his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon had more reservations with the wording. The timetable called for a final agreement on a two-state solution to be reached in 2005. Unfortunately, it was never implemented.
Image: Getty Iamges/AFP/J. Aruri
Annapolis, 2007
In 2007, US President George W. Bush hosted a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, to relaunch the peace process. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas took part in talks with officials from the Quartet and over a dozen Arab states. It was agreed that further negotiations would be held with the goal of reaching a peace deal by the end of 2008.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Thew
Washington, 2010
In 2010, US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to and implement a 10-month moratorium on settlements in disputed territories. Later, Netanyahu and Abbas agreed to relaunch direct negotiations to resolve all issues. Negotiations began in Washington in September 2010, but within weeks there was a deadlock.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Milner
Cycle of escalation and ceasefire continues
A new round of violence broke out in and around Gaza in late 2012. A ceasefire was reached between Israel and those in power in the Gaza Strip, which held until June 2014. The kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June 2014 resulted in renewed violence and eventually led to the Israeli military operation Protective Edge. It ended with a ceasefire on August 26, 2014.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Paris summit, 2017
Envoys from over 70 countries gathered in Paris, France, to discuss the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Netanyahu slammed the discussions as "rigged" against his country. Neither Israeli nor Palestinian representatives attended the summit. "A two-state solution is the only possible one," French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said at the opening of the event.
Image: Reuters/T. Samson
Deteriorating relations in 2017
Despite the year's optimistic opening, 2017 brought further stagnation in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. A deadly summer attack on Israeli police at the Temple Mount, a site holy to both Jews and Muslims, sparked deadly clashes. Then US President Donald Trump's plan to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem prompted Palestinian leader Abbas to say "the measures ... undermine all peace efforts."
Image: Reuters/A. Awad
Trump's peace plan backfires, 2020
US President Donald Trump presented a peace plan that freezes Israeli settlement construction but retains Israeli control over most of the illegal settlements it has already built. The plan would double Palestinian-controlled territory but asks Palestinians to cross a red line and accept the previously constructed West Bank settlements as Israeli territory. Palestinians reject the plan.
Image: Reuters/M. Salem
Conflict reignites in 2021
Plans to evict four families and give their homes in East Jerusalem to Jewish settlers led to escalating violence in May 2021. Hamas fired over 2,000 rockets at Israel, and Israeli military airstrikes razed buildings in the Gaza Strip. The international community, including Germany's Foreign Ministry, called for an end to the violence and both sides to return to the negotiating table.
