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Palestinians fight to prove West Bank land ownership

Palestinians living in villages near the illegal outpost of Amona are fighting to prove their ownership of the land where a pro-settler campaign is planning to establish its new location.

Fuad Maadi (R), a 60-year-old Palestinian man, speaks with Gilad Grossman of Israeli rights group Yesh Din, on September 11, 2016, as he stands on a hill in the West Bank Christian village of Taybeh overlooking land he says his family owns and on which houses from the nearby wildcat Jewish settlement of Amona might be relocated.
An Israeli court has ruled that the wildcat Jewish settlement of Amona, where live around 40 families in mainly caravan homes, is on Palestinian property and must be evacuated by De
Fuad Maadi (R), a 60-year-old Palestinian man, speaks with Gilad Grossman of Israeli rights group Yesh Din as he stands on a hill in the West Bank Christian village of Taybeh overlooking land he says his family owns and on which houses from the nearby Jewish settlement of Amona might be relocated, Taybeh, West Bank, Sept. 11, 2016. — ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images

A stranger landing in Israel and watching the efforts of right-wing Knesset members to prevent the evacuation and demolition of the illegal West Bank settlement outpost of Amona would likely have thought that the security of the State of Israel was at stake.

Although the Supreme Court decided to order the evacuation of the Jewish settlement built on private Palestinian land back in December 2014, the court granted the Amona settlers and the state a two-year extension to organize the move and find an alternative location for its inhabitants. But instead of preparing to implement the ruling, the Amona settlers, their leaders in the Yesha settlement council and the right-wing parties chose to try to skirt the court decision and keep their homes.

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