Migron residents who are not appealing expulsion orders are ignoring government threats that they will be denied new housing if they don't leave peacefully, Migron spokesman Itai Hamo told Arutz Sheva Sunday. Seventeen of the approximately 50 families at Migron have appealed to the High Court to allow them to stay because the land on which their homes were built were recently bought from alleged Palestinian Authority owners. The purchases do not cover the entire community, whose homes are to be demolished by court order by the end of this month. The government is building alternative housing for them at the near Givat HaYekev neighborhood. Hamo said that Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon was among ministers who made the threat. “They can threaten all they want. We are not in the mode to be threatened, and we are in the midst of a legal process in which Migron residents are waiting for a High Court decision Tuesday," he stated. The spokesman severely criticized the way the government is handling the scheduled expulsion, revealing to the media expulsion orders last Thursday even though they still have not been received by the residents. “This is not acceptable considering that the High Court president said the expulsions would not be carried out before the Tuesday ruling on the appeal.” In addition, he said that six homes at the Givat HaYekev site lack roofs, floors and basic infrastructure. Several government ministers have criticized Migron residents for allegedly not upholding their previous agreement to the government’s decision to expel them and remove them to the nearby community. “The agreement with Migron residents was based on knowledge that an educational area at Migron will remain and residents would move to a permanent homes while a judicial review would continue,” Hamo told Arutz Sheva . “None of these obligations were upheld. I suggest the ministers listen to themselves retracting their own promises a month ago that if Migron residents purchase the land, they can remain in their homes.”
