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Residents of Judea, Samaria and all over Israel celebrated the building and erection of new housing units in Amichai this month. Amichai is the newest community in Samaria, located just east of the community of Shiloh. The completion of the community of Amichai will mark the first government-sanctioned Israeli community to be built in the Judean and Samarian regions of Israel in 25 years. About one year ago, the residents of Amona, a community located in the Binyamin region of Samaria were evicted from their homes. The government subsequently recognized and sponsored the building of Amichai to house the displaced...

While the Prime Minister has yet to approve construction of a new town in Samaria for the 42 families evicted from Amona, despite his promise to do so, the Jewish Home party is already laying the groundwork for the new community. Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel proposed Sunday to set aside 70 million shekels ($18,940,000) for construction of the new town, while giving the Binyamin Regional Council, the local authority, permission to undertake the project. In the proposal, Ariel cites the government’s compromise agreement with Amona residents in December of last year, according to which a new community will be built...

Here is the translation: With these hands I signed the deportation / I’m always determined against the settlers / I’m here for you, Adalah and Yesh Din (two anti-Zionist NGOs) / Submit petitions, I’m waiting for you. Ay, I haven’t Demolished Enough Yet / The Jews are building too much / Ay, I haven’t Demolished Enough Yet / I’m working on it, count on me. I haven’t put enough soldiers in jail / There’s much to improve in protecting terrorists / So come on, B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence / Submit more claims and get another ruling Ay, I haven’t...

A day after the removal of Article 7 - which would retroactively normalize the status of Amona and prevent the destruction of the community - from the Regulation Law, some 20 Likud activist leaders took a tour this afternoon of Amona and met with community leaders. Avichai Buaron, one of the leaders of Amona and its struggle to prevent the destruction of the community, said that, out of the 124 acres (500 dunam) on which Amona is built, only half an acre (2 dunam) is subject to an ownership claim. Buaron also noted: “The Likud members realized that we’re talking...

Activists from the Arab village of Silwad, with help from leftists NGO Yesh Din, sent a letter to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit requesting the government stop activists stop heading to Amona. They also asked that the temporary structures built to house activists be destroyed immediately. According to the Arabs, activists go to Amona for the express purpose of resisting the Israeli Supreme Court's orders. The Supreme Court has ordered that Amona's residents be expelled and their homes destroyed on December 25. In the letter, the Arabs "reminded" Mandelblit that he had requested to delay the expulsion and destruction of Amona,...

Halfway to the sky sits a tiny village of little white houses that has attracted the ire of the White House. The village of Amona with its small white houses and red roofs could easily be mistaken for some lost Italian village or a dusty California town. But the White House would not have “boiled in anger”, as one anonymous official claimed, over the doings of some Italian village. There’s only one place on earth that makes Obama’s blood boil. It isn’t Iran or North Korea. It’s Israel. Amona’s small scattering of houses have a fraction of the square footage...

The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem rejected on Wednesday evening the criticism of the State Department in Washington over Israel’s approval of construction of homes on government-owned land in Shilo for residents who will be evicted from the community of Amona. "The 98 housing units approved in Shilo are not ‘new settlements’. The units will be built on state land, within the existing municipal boundaries of Shilo,” the Foreign Ministry clarified. The new housing units “are designed to provide a housing solution for the residents of Amona who are forced to leave their homes under orders demolition of the Supreme Court,”...

The Obama administration has “strongly” condemned Israel for plans to construct housing on land in Judea and Samaria, saying it calls Israel’s commitment to a negotiated agreement into question. The State Department says a proposal to build a new settlement with up to 300 units runs counter to the concept of a two-state solution to the long-running conflict. The condemnation apparently refers to recently approved plans for 98 units to resettle evacuees from the soon-to-be-razed outpost of Amona, near Ofra...

Israel's Top Court Orders West Bank Settlement Demolished Protester By BATSHEVA SOBELMAN Amona, the largest of unauthorized outposts in the West Bank, is ordered demolished by Israel's top court Israel’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to demolish the West Bank settlement of Amona within two years and relocate its 300 Jewish residents, moving to end a years-long legal battle. In the ruling late Thursday, Supreme Court President Asher Grunis acknowledged that demolishing the community would be “difficult and painful” for its residents. However, he wrote, “this difficulty cannot enable illegal construction on private land” or justify failure to comply...

A court on Tuesday ordered the state to pay compensation to local Arabs over their claims of having owned land in the Jewish community of Amona, located to the north of Jerusalem. The six Arab claimants were given a total of 300,000 shekels ($85,700), and further the court ordered that if the Jewish residents of the town on the land claimed by the Arab side are not removed by 2015, the state must pay another 48,000 shekels ($13,500), reports AFP. The extreme left legal group Yesh Din praised the ruling, saying "now what is required is evacuation and we're going...

The members of the emergency security squad (kitat konenut) at Amona, in the Binyamin region, announced Friday that they are collectively resigning their posts, after police arrested two of them. Police say that the two men had been throwing rocks at Arab marauders near their community, despite the fact that the IDF and police were present. The members of the emergency team have reportedly handed in their guns and communications radio to the army. The two men were under arrest at the Judea and Samaria (Shai) District Friday, but the police said they would be released before the Sabbath. "I...

Published: 01/09/08, 2:52 PM Violent Amona Cop Turns on Superiors in Court by Ezra HaLevi (IsraelNN.com) Former border police officer Mordechai Mehager, part of the Yassam riot police unit, insists that police officers who clashed with demonstrators in Amona in early 2006 were told to use violence. Mehager is facing a lawsuit filed by Yishai Greenbaum, a young activist who says Mehager beat him with a club for two full minutes on his head, arms and legs, leaving him with a permanent handicap. Mehager was identified from video footage in which he is seen beating nonviolent protestors with a police...

Published: 11/16/07, 11:42 AM Police Fail, Grassroots Group Succeeds: Violent Soldier ID'd by Hillel Fendel (IsraelNN.com) The Yesha Civil Rights Organization did its homework, found witnesses and a video, and was able to locate and identify a non-Jewish soldier who "volunteered" to use violence against youths during the police destruction of nine unauthorized houses. The incident occurred in February 2006, in the Jewish town of Amona, overlooking Ofrah in the Binyamin region. Hundreds of youths who came to protest the destruction of the Jewish homes were injured, some seriously, by violent Border Guardsmen and other policemen. Many complaints were filed...

No Criminal Charges Against Policeman who Beat Amona Protestor 22:14 Jun 15, '06 / 19 Sivan 5766 (IsraelNN.com) A Border policeman who was filmed beating an Amona protestor with a rod faces only a disciplinary trial without criminal charges, it was revealed Thursday. The human rights group in Judea and Samaria plans to appeal the decision and demand that Ali Sa'id be charged with criminal violations in the filmed beating of a 17-year-old youth at Amona earlier this year. The injured boy said he was not involved in any violence prior to the beating by the policeman. His lawyer added...

Police files first indictment against mounted officer charged with trampling over protester during outpost's evacuation A first indictment was filed against a policeman who took part in the evacuation of the illegal Amona outpost to the Jerusalem Magistrates Court Sunday. The Police Investigation Unit (PIU) indicted David Edry, an officer of the capital's mounted police unit, for assault and causing injury. According to the indictment, in the framework of the police's attempts to disperse protesters during the violent clashes between settlers and security forces in the outpost, the accused spurred his horse and galloped at one of the activists, Yehuda...

(IsraelNN.com) Police Chief Moshe Karadi told the Knesset committee hearings on the Amona evacuation and police brutality that the police were not expecting what he called massive resistance and violence "on the gravest level." He said police violence was on a lesser level because it did not include tear gas, which he barred because of the danger to those with respiratory problems. Karadi added the police took into account the possibility of violence. He also discounted accounts that more than 200 people were injured by police by explaining that only six people were hospitalized for more than 24 hours. The...

The IDF: An Uncomfortable Analysis by Moshe Feiglin Feb 26, '06 / 28 Shevat 5766 The IDF is part of our culture and national ethos. But the time has come to examine its objective status, the role that it is playing today in the State of Israel and the Gordian knot between it and the belief-based public. Our future depends on our ability to honestly assess our situation. Incorrect analysis will turn the naive, belief based public into the major tool for the destruction of Israel. What is the Current Strategic Threat to Israel? On the surface, the answer is...

It breaks my heart to post this link, but the brutality shown by Israel's police in evacuating Jewish citizens from 5 unauthorized houses in the West Bank is horrific. The film is here: http://www.rafflebuilder.com/Arutz7/ There is a widespread belief in Israel that the Acting Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, personally ordered the brutality used by the police in this action. Currently, the Knesset (Israel's parliament)is investigating the government's handling of this evacuation. This investigation is being fought every step of the way by Ehud Olmert and his interim government. Today, the head of the police and the head of the military...

Parliamentary commission of inquiry into outpost evacuation loses growing number of witnesses after internal security minister declares he will appear instead of police officers, defense minister decides to testify instead of IDF officers Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Tuesday decided that he would testify Wednesday before the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the violent evacuation of the Amona outpost, instead of the chief of staff and IDF officers. Mofaz made the decision after consulting throughout the day with legal advisers and with Attorney General Menachem Mazuz. Knesset Member Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said...

Knesset Begins Inquiry into Amona Violence 16:58 Feb 27, '06 / 29 Shevat 5766 By Hillel Fendel The Knesset Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the violence at Amona has convened for its first meeting. It will call Olmert, Mofaz and others to testify - but cannot force them to appear. Committee Chairman Yuval Shteinitz (Likud) said that the purpose of today's meeting was to determine the manner in which it would function and how testimonies would be heard. The first testimonies will be heard on Wednesday. The committee is to investigate the violence at the destruction of nine homes in...