Jerusalem: elderly Palestinian couple ‘cannot imagine’ forced eviction from home

An elderly Palestinian couple living in the Old City of Jerusalem have said that they cannot imagine the moment when they will be forcibly evicted by illegal Jewish settlers backed by Israeli occupation forces. “It’s like waiting for death,” Nora Ghaith, 68, and Mustafa Sub-Laban, 72, told journalists who asked about their plans regarding the deadline for living in their home in Aqbat Al-Khalidiya neighbourhood.

An Israeli enforcement officer delivered a notice of forced eviction to the couple on 11 May. The date set for their displacement is Sunday, 11 June. They have lived in their home since before Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967. It is going to be taken over by a Jewish settler organisation.

The family home was leased from Jordan in 1953 and has been the subject of a protected lease since then. Like many other homes in the neighbourhood, it is a target for the settler organisations. After more than 45 years of repeated lawsuits and harassment against the family by the occupation authorities and, since 2010, by the Galicia settler association, the Israeli courts decided to end the family’s protected lease and throw them out.

The Galicia settler association claims that the home of the Palestinian family in what is now part of a residential compound seized by settlers, is a Jewish endowment property. The courts evicted the rest of the family in 2016 and prevented the couple’s children and grandchildren from living with them.

The family’s failure to abide by the eviction order and leave their home voluntarily before the above-mentioned date means that the Israeli settlers, backed by the occupation government and armed forces, will forcibly evict the elderly couple. At the same time, the couple will be forced to pay the high costs of the eviction, as well as the costs of taking their property out of their home.

The UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territories said that it was deeply concerned by the imminent forced eviction of the family scheduled for 11 June.

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“The forced eviction of the Sub-Laban family is part of ongoing evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem, primarily based on discriminatory laws and practices, which violate the human rights of Palestinians, resulting in forced evictions, the loss of property and sources of livelihood,” said the UN. “Forced evictions are a key factor in creating a coercive environment that may lead to forcible transfer, which is prohibited under international humanitarian law and may amount to a war crime.”

The UN called on Israel “to immediately halt all forced evictions, including that of the Ghaith/Sub-Laban family and to cease any activity that would further contribute to a coercive environment and lead to a risk of forcible transfer.”