Nora and Mustafa Sub Laban are counting down the days until a court ruling that has hung over them since 1978 is carried out in the walled Old City of east Jerusalem that Israel has seized.
They are about to be evicted from their house in the Muslim Quarter to make room for Jewish immigrants after years of legal fighting. “These days, I feel like a prisoner who is awaiting execution. Nora Sub Laban told AFP, “I don’t sleep like other people.
Residents of east Jerusalem have been fighting the government and Israeli settlements in court for 45 years.
The Sub Laban family and Ir Amim, an anti-settlement monitor, both claim that the settlers are a member of a group named Atara Leyoshna and are represented by Eli Attal.
When AFP contacted Attal about the matter, he declined to speak.
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Jews allegedly resided in the structure prior to the holy city’s split into Israeli and Jordanian sections after the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948, according to the Israeli plaintiffs. They cite a 1970s Israeli rule that permits Jews to regain property owned by Jews before to 1948, even if the two parties are not connected.
Before Israel took east Jerusalem in 1967 and moved to annex it, the Sub Labans claim that Jordan had recognised them as “protected tenants” in the 1950s.
The family displayed to AFP a 1953 Jordanian lease agreement as well as Israeli court decisions acknowledging their position as “protected tenants.” The couple’s “protected tenants” status, according to the courts, no longer applies because they do not now reside continuously in the building; therefore, the eviction may proceed. According to Nora, the judgement relates to a time when she wasn’t consistently residing in the flat due to a hospitalisation.
Rafat Sub Laban, the couple’s son and an employee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the West Bank city of Ramallah, stated that “legally speaking, within the Israeli system, there is nothing more that can be done.”
