Palestinian family fights effort by settlers and Israeli government to evict them from Jerusalem home

December 9th, 2015

Awake Goy

The Gaith-Sub Laban family is facing an imminent unlawful forced eviction from their home in the Muslim Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem at the hands of Israeli authorities and settler organizations. Four generations of the Gaith-Sub Laban family have lived in their home since 1953, for 62 years, and they have been targeted for eviction by Israeli occupation authorities and settlers for 40 of those years. Palestinian grandmother Nora Gaith-Sub Laban, 59, who was born in her home and grew up there, lives with her family of 8, including two of her grandchildren Mustafa, 9 and Kanaan, 3, stated “Nothing makes me happier than seeing my grandchildren growing up in our family home….I’ve lived through my life watching my neighbors & family being slowly pushed out of the city.”

They are being evicted because of their ethnicity, in order to be replaced by Jewish settlers.

Initially the family entered a protected lease agreement with the Jordanian government in 1953, the custodian that took over “absentee” property following the Nakba in 1948. In 1967 the Israeli Guardian of Absentee Property took over their lease.

The eviction process of the Ghaith-Sub Laban family was initiated by the Galetzia Trust, related to a number of Israeli settler organizations including Ateret Cohanim, which if funded by American Jewish millionaire and bingo entrepreneur Irving Moskowitz and facilitates the Judaization of East Jerusalem neighborhoods. The Trust claims the family lost their ‘protected tenant’ status under Israeli law because they had once vacated their home.

The family was once prohibited from accessing their property and forced to temporarily relocate to another house in Jerusalem in the late 1970’s after the Israeli Jerusalem Municipality ordered the family to carry out restoration work on their home, work which the Israeli Guardian of Absentee Property banned the family from making! After a lengthly court battle the family was allowed to legally return to their home. They have continuously paid rent on their property since 1953, even when the authorities tried to prohibited them from accessing the property.

East Jerusalem Home Demolitions and Forced Evictions between 2009-2014 Graphic: Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU)

In Nora Gaith-Sub Laban’s own words:

We’re being evicted because a settler organization, Ateret Cohanim, that publicly declares its desire to create a Jewish majority in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem petitioned the Israeli courts to kick us out of our home. The Israeli Magistrate court issued an eviction order in September 2014 based on testimonies of Israeli settlers that want to take over our neighborhood. They know nothing about my family and our life at home, and are blinded by hate.

I have lived through my life watching my neighbors in the Old City, and my family across Jerusalem, being slowly pushed out of the city through cooperation between settlers, the Israeli political establishment and the outcome of discriminatory judicial rulings. I have decided to remain steadfast, and need your help to ensure we’re not forced from our home.

Initially the Ghaith-Sub Laban family appealed the eviction but the Israeli District Court dismissed the family’s appeal. Then the Gaith-Sub Laban family submitted grounds of appeal to the High Court of Israel, “asserting that the lower courts made a legal error by accepting inadmissible testimonies based on hearsay, rather than fact, from witnesses who have a clear conflict of interest.” On November 18, 2015, the High Court issued an injunction preventing the Ghaith-Sub Laban’s eviction, but only for a few weeks, long enough for the Galetzia Trust to respond to the family’s appeal. Then the Court will decide if the grounds of appeal are sufficient — or not.

Nora and her family and supporters have been demonstrating at the EU, US and UN offices in Jerusalem and Ramallah. Over 31,000 people from all over the world have signed this petition and taken action to pressure their governments to take action, including the U.S. State Department. The social media campaign #StopNorasEviction keeps expanding — but time is running out.