A Palestinian family was forced out from their home in East al-Quds by Israeli forces and extremist settlers, as the Tel Aviv regime continues to forcibly evict Palestinians from their homes throughout the occupied territories.
The Ghaith-Sub Laban family in Quds’ Old City was raided shortly after dawn on Tuesday, and they were forced to leave before the illegal settlers moved in.
The residence is situated close to the al-Aqsa Mosque in the Aqabat al-Khalidiya neighborhood.
Members of the family were pushed out into the streets and were seen screaming and sobbing in videos that were posted online.
When Israeli forces entered the home, Nora Sub Laban, 68, was outside, and Mustafa Sub Laban, 72, was inside. After discovering that the police had taken her home, Nora told the local media that the Israeli government had stolen everything from the Palestinians.
They [Israeli forces] are unfamiliar with democracy. Nora said while sitting in front of her house, “They are a regime of criminals, thieves who have stolen everything from us.
“They have stolen everything, including houses, land, young people, kids, and women. The Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Old City of Al-Quds, Sheikh Jarrah, Jenin, Nablus, Silwan, and the entire world saw what they did, she continued.
We are the only remaining Arabs in this house, and I am surrounded by Israeli settlers. One of the settlers is dancing around here, gleefully reveling in the fact that they are stealing our home from us because they despise us. Nora made a comment.
The home’s violent seizure by Israeli forces was condemned by protesters who had gathered outside. Along with the reporters present, they scattered quickly. At least five people were detained by the regime’s police.
The family was expelled after Israel’s so-called supreme court previously sided with a settler organization, the Galicia Settlement Association, which maintained that the home had been owned by Jews prior to 1948.
Since 1953, when Jordan was in charge of al-Quds’ eastern half, including the Old City, the Ghaith-Sub Laban family has been renting the residence.
Since 2010, the family has fought the expulsion attempts in Israeli courts.
The family is no longer qualified as protected tenants, according to a 2014 decision by an Israeli magistrate court, and the settlers were free to evict them.
In 2016, a report by the UN Special Rapporteur Makarim Wibisono stated, “The case was decided against the family by a magistrate who was herself a settler.”
Mustafa and Nora’s son Ahmad Sub Laban previously revealed to the Middleeasteye website that the family resisted settler attempts to evict them for roughly 45 years.
“Consider a family where the parents spend all of their money on a lawyer just to protect their property,” Ahmad said.
“Imagine a family where the parents are constantly appearing in Israeli court.”. “I recall that when I was a child, my parents would frequently visit the court. All the time, it was terrible.”
Late last month, Palestinian civil society and rights organizations issued a statement denouncing Israel’s attempts to uproot the family, claiming that such an action would constitute “forcible transfer, which under the Rome Statute constitutes both a war crime and a crime against humanity.”
According to the statement, the ongoing expulsions of Palestinians are the “outcome of the deliberate inaction and unwillingness of the international community to take effective and meaningful measures to end Israel’s illegal occupation and settler-colonial apartheid regime.”
Additionally, the organizations urged governments to take action, “including through arms embargoes, economic sanctions and countermeasures against Israel; and targeted individual sanctions against Israeli settler organizations.”
UN experts recently stated that the international community must take action to stop systematic and intentional home demolition and sealing, arbitrary displacement, and forced evictions of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Israel regularly destroys Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds under the pretext that the buildings were erected without permits, which are incredibly difficult to obtain. Additionally, they occasionally give Palestinian homeowners the choice of paying the demolition costs or having their own homes demolished.
Approximately 280 settlements constructed since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and al-Quds in 1967 now house more than 700,000 Israelis.
Under international law, Israel’s settlements are all forbidden. In a number of resolutions, the United Nations Security Council has denounced Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories.
For a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital, the West Bank is what the Palestinians desire.
