Israeli supreme court puts back settler demolition order

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel's supreme court on Sunday gave a small group of settlers in the occupied West Bank a brief respite from a demolition order, giving them until March 5 to leave.

Nine units in Ofra settlement which were built on private Palestinian land were originally ordered to be razed by February 8, 2017, a 2015 court order said. 

Their inhabitants had asked the court for a three-month postponement due to delays in completion of their new buildings, according to a transcript of Sunday's ruling, released by the justice ministry.

"Execution of the demolition orders against the nine buildings will be carried out within one month, that is to say by March 5, 2017," the court ruled.

"Although the request for a three-month postponement was rejected we hope that when the time to leave arrives the petitioners will go peacefully as they stated in their request," Chief Justice Miriam Naor said.

On Thursday, Israeli forces battled hardliners resisting the court-ordered demolition of the Amona outpost, a wildcat satellite of Ofra, near Ramallah built without official government permits.

Israeli forces said that 32 officers were injured during the eviction operation, which began the day before.

Ofra itself, one of the oldest settlements in the occupied West Bank, has a population of around 3,500 people. 

It is deep inside the Palestinian territory, and is not part of the blocs of settlements that Israel will seek to retain as part of any future peace agreement with the Palestinians.

More than 370,000 Israeli settlers now live across the West Bank, surrounded by around 2.6 million Palestinians.

Israel's parliament is expected on Monday to give second and third readings to a bill which would retroactively legalise several thousand Israeli settler units in the West Bank.

The United Nations has ruled that all settlements on occupied territory are illegal, whether or not they are authorised by the Israeli government.

They are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.

But the settlement movement wields significant power in Israeli politics.

Key members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, seen as the most right-wing in Israel's history, openly oppose a Palestinian state and advocate annexing most of the West Bank.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper said on Sunday that Netanyahu, who on Monday meets British Prime Minister Teresa May, has sought to have voting on the legalisation bill postponed but the bill's main backer, hardline Education Minister Naftali Bennett, refused.