Israel orders Palestinian family to pay for forced eviction from their home

The Israeli occupation authorities have told a Palestinian family thrown out of their home in occupied Jerusalem to pay for their eviction, Haaretz has reported. Members of the Sub Laban family were forcibly evicted last month from their home in which they lived for 70 years. The house in Aqabat Al-Khaldia in the Old City of Jerusalem was handed over by the occupation authorities to illegal Jewish settlers.

According to Noura Sub Laban, the Israeli payment order includes $4,610 to pay the Israeli police for the 160 working hours taken to evict the family. Moreover, the family was ordered to pay $4,600 to a private company that cleared the house, and $3,500 for legal expenses.

Israel has also imposed restrictions on family members until they pay these charges. These include a travel ban and the confiscation of their property, including vehicles and real estate, in the event that the fine is not paid without delay.

The family were evicted by the Israeli occupation forces and settlers on 11 July after a court order was issued. This specified that the family should be thrown out of their home so that Jewish settlers could move in.

Palestinian civil society and rights groups released a statement in June condemning Israel’s efforts to displace the family. “This forced transfer constitutes both a war crime and a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute,” they pointed out. “The ongoing expulsions of Palestinians are a result of the international community’s deliberate failure and unwillingness to take effective and meaningful measures to end Israel’s illegal occupation and settler-colonial apartheid regime.”

The groups called for arms embargoes, economic sanctions and countermeasures against Israel, as well as targeted individual sanctions against Israeli settler organisations. All of Israel’s settlers and the settlements in which they live on stolen Palestinian land are illegal under international law.

The Ghaith-Sub Laban family has been renting their home since 1953, when the eastern half of Jerusalem, including the Old City, was under Jordanian administration. They were granted protected lease rights, but have faced a costly, 45-year legal battle in Israeli courts against government-backed settler organisations wanting to displace them.

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