Ten years after the confrontation that has become a symbol, the residents of Amona are preparing for the next round; approaching the High Court of Justice's deadline for the evacuation of the outpost, the settlers are recruiting thousands of supporters to protest on the deadline and are pressuring right-wing ministers to find a way to circumvent the order.
By Oded Shalom, Elisha Ben-Kimon
Published: 21.07.16
The raspberry bushes are laden with juicy fruit. The grapevines, entangled in one another, are also weighty with clusters of grapes. We're at Avichai Buaron's home in Amona, standing in his back yard, which is looking like a small Italian farm with olive trees and the mountainous vista that surrounds it.
We stood on the exact opposite spot from which we overlooked the outpost two weeks prior with his Palestinian neighbors, the owners of the land on which Amona was established.
It's easy to fall for the charms of the beautiful scenery and the fresh grapes and raspberries, to fill one's lungs with the clean mountain air and forget that this outpost is actually an oil barrel, with a brush fire making its way towards it, threatening to set the entire area aflame.
Amona, which is located on one of the extensions of Tall Asur about 900 meters above sea level, is the biggest illegal outpost in the territories right now, with 40 families and some 200 children living in it. It started out as an archeological excavation site and later became a location for the national water company Mekorot to house giant water tanks for the nearby settlement of Ofra. And, like in many of the other outposts that have sprung up in the West Bank, the State of Israel invested millions of shekels in building infrastructure and preparing the ground for construction. One hand of the government was raining funds at the outpost, while the other was declaring at court that the lands on which it was built were private lands belonging to Palestinians.
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