The Supreme Court allows a Jerusalemite couple to stay in their house for 10…and then evacuate it in favor of the settlers
The Israeli Supreme Court issued a decision last Tuesday night (20/12/2016) regarding the appeal submitted by Gheith-Sub Laban family against the decision to evacuate the family. The court partially approved the appeal and decided to stop the evacuation for now. They decided the family would stay in the house as a protected tenant for 10 years and then would be evacuated and the house will be given to the settlement institutions.
Evacuating the sons
Gheith-Sub Laban family explained in a statement that the Israeli Supreme Court decided to limit the right to living in the house for Noura Gheith and her husband Mustafa Sub Laban without their children. The court gave the settlers the right to ask to evacuate the family in case any of the children lived in the house.
The family said: “The Supreme Court’s decision is actually an evacuation decision to the children and to separate them from their parents”.
The court did not mention the storage underneath the house in its decision and indirectly allowed settlers to seize it.
The family explained that the decision came one day after the session that was held at the Supreme Court on Monday (19/12/2017) as the judges heard the family’s appeal and the settlers’ claims that the family abandoned their home and haven’t been living in it for years. The court suggested reaching a solution for both sides by keeping the family during the life of Noura and her husband Mustafa and limit the “protection right” only to them but the settlers refused the court’s suggestion, and suggested to evacuate the family and allow Noura and her husband to live in a storage underneath the house that is only 20 square meters. The court neglected the settlers’ suggestion and came up with this unjust decision on the next day.
Noura Gheith: Dismemberment of the family
Noura lives with her husband Mustafa in their house in Oqbat Al-Khaldyeh in the Old City of Jerusalem. Noura’s family had leased the house in 1953 and lived in the house after the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967. Today, the couple lives in the house with their children Lama, Ra’fat and Ahmad and his family of 4 individuals.
Noura said that the court’s decision approved the false settlers’ claims that the house is abandoned and their order is actually a dismemberment of the family as Noura will be away from her grandchildren and her children Ra’fat and Lama who are not married yet will have live on their own. In case the family doesn’t obey the court's unjust decision, they settlers might submit a new request to evacuate the family before the 10-year period.
Noura’s son Ahmad who is a journalist and a human rights activist said that the Supreme Court’s decision actually evacuated part of the family and left the other part temporarily. The Israeli judiciary proved once again the racial discrimination Palestinians face under the Israeli occupation which allows settlers to claim their property from before 1948 and prevents Palestinians from the same right. Today, the Israeli judiciary also worked on dividing the family and identifying who can and who can’t live in the house. In all cases of evacuation and demolishing Palestinian houses, the court acts like a partner to the Israeli authorities that support settlements and settlers’ ambitions to seize the largest number of houses possible in East Jerusalem which is a legitimization of the occupation’s practices that violate the International Law, and potential annexation of Jerusalem by the Israeli authorities after 1967.
