My name is Nora Sub Laban. I am a Palestinian grandmother living in Jerusalem. On March 16th, 2015, Israeli settlers and security forces tried to forcefully evict my children, grandchildren and me from our home in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The family and activists who had come to our home helped stop them, but they'll be back soon with more forces.

I’m over 59 years old now. My family has lived in this home for 62 years. Israeli forces and settlers will be coming again to uproot my family from our home at any moment. But I have hope. If thousands of people take action around the world and put pressure on the Israeli government, they’ll back away.

I am opening the door for Ambassadors and the heads of international agencies to visit my home. If enough of them stop by then the Israeli authorities and settlers will be deterred from evicting us. But I need your help to convince the Ambassadors and international agency leaders to visit.

I worked hard to ensure my children received a decent education. My two oldest sons dedicate their lives working for human rights. My daughter is a university student. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my grandchildren who are 9 and 2 years old growing up in our family home. I pray for a peaceful future for them and my heart aches when I think we could all be evicted from our home in the coming days.

We’re being evicted by a settler movement under the name “Galetzia Hekdesh” who claim the house is an old Ashkenazi Jewish property. The movement is related to the settler organization Ateret Lushna, that has a publicly declared aimed of creating a Jewish majority in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The settlers appointed an agent working for an American based company 33 HEVRON St. LLC to petition Israeli courts to evict us from our home. The Israeli Magistrate’s Court decided to evict us in September 2014 base on testimonies of Israeli settlers that want to take over our neighborhood. They know nothing about my family and our life at home, and want us out only because we are Palestinian.

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 transferred.

Please join me in signing this petition. Once we reach a critical number of signers, I will march carrying your voices with dozens of activists and present it to ambassadors, international agencies and authorities in Israel, highlighting the suffering my family and other families endure, and creating enough international pressure to stop our eviction.  


Your steadfast grandmother, 
Nora Sub Laban

For more information: 

Family Press Release
November 15th 2015

Israeli Court Rejects the Ghaith-Sub Laban Petition, Orders their Eviction in 45 Days

The Israeli District Court rejected on the 11th of October the petition submitted by the Ghaith-Sub Laban family against their eviction from their house in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem which was issued in September 2014 by the Israeli Magistrate’s Court. The District Court further ordered the family to be evicted from their house within 45 days from issuing the decision in addition to paying a fine of 10,000 shekels (2500 USD).

In its decision, the Israeli District Court favored the settlers allegations against the family and accepted their accounts that the Ghaith-Sub Laban family has never lived in their house. This notion was based solely on the testimonies of the same settlers who are trying to have the family evicted. The Court accepted these baseless allegations against the family although the Ghaith-Sub Laban family has been living in their house for long years. The  Court decided that the family has violated their protected tenancy status based on the settlers claims in addition to the fact that family installed an air conditioning device in their house without a permit!

Rejecting the family’s appeal and ordering their eviction comes in a time in which Jerusalem is witnessing a brutal campaign of oppression against Palestinians in East Jerusalem and especially in the Old City. These policies come as part of Israel’s practices of collective punishment and displacement against Palestinians in the occupied territory. The Court’s decision further confirms that Palestinians cannot seek any form of justice before Israeli courts that merely legalize occupation and give a legal cover to Israel’s violations and oppression against Palestinians. International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law both protect Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and consider Israel’s policies of forced displacement of Palestinians to be a war crime and grave breach of international norms.

The Ghaith-Sub Laban family has been the subject of repeated attempts by Israel and by settler organizations to evict the family and force them to leave their house. These attempts date back to as early as the 1970s when Israeli authorities banned the site family from holding necessary maintenance works to the house. Furthermore, Israeli settlers blocked the main entrance to the family’s house in the early 1980s thus preventing them from physically accessing their house. Despite all these attempts the family has fought for their right to remain in their house for over 20 years before Israeli courts. Israeli authorities have attempted once more to have the family evicted in 2010 after granting ownership of the house to an Israeli settler organization which claims the house is an old Jewish consecrated property. The settler organization has appealed to have the family evicted in 2010 claiming the family does not live there. In their opinion, the house should be inhabited by a Jewish family and not a Palestinian Muslim family. The same settler organization has managed over the years to evict several Palestinian families in the Old City of Jerusalem and place Israeli settlers in their place.

The Israeli settlers have further attempted to target the family before Israeli governmental bodies, particularly the Israeli National Insurance Institute and the Israeli Ministry of Interior. The settlers alleged to both these bodies that the family does not live in the house or in Jerusalem. As a result of these allegations, the National Insurance Institute has stopped the families social benefits including their medical insurance. Two members of the family; Nora Ghaith-Sub Laban (59 years old) and Mustafa Sub Laban (64 years old) suffer from medical conditions and leaving them without access to medical care based on unfounded allegations is a serious violation of their right to health. Their residency status in Jerusalem is also threatened, whereby the Israeli Ministry of Interior can revoke the family’s residency status, rendering them completely status-less and stateless should they Ministry validate the settlers allegations and should the family be evicted.

Update: April 2015 Nora Ghaith-Sub Laban, a Palestinian woman living in the Old City of Jerusalem, is facing forced eviction at the hands of Israeli settlers and Israeli security forces. The family of eight, including two children aged 9 and 2, are being evicted by court order from the Israeli Magistrate Court so as to make way for a Jewish settler family to move in. The family consists of Nora and her husband Mustafa Sub Laban; her two sons Ahmad Sub Laban, a human rights activist who works for an Israeli human rights organization called Ir Amim; Rafat Sub Laban, a human rights activists who works as an advocacy officer for a Catholic Human Rights Organizations called the Society of St. Yves; Lama Sub Laban a university student; Ruba Qadamani-Sub Laban, a teacher and Ahmad’s wife; Mustafa junior (9 years old) and Kenan (2 years old), Ahmad’s sons.

Dozens of Palestinian families in occupied East Jerusalem who carry the status of protected persons under International Humanitarian Law were forcefully evicted by Israeli authorities to make way for Israeli settlers to move in. So far, the Ghaith-Sub Laban family has been through two attempted evictions: the first took place on the 9th of February 2015 without police escort; and the second, which was yesterday 16th of March 2015, with a police escort of over 20 security personnel.

The first eviction was attempted in contravention of legal procedures and was stopped after dozens of activists and journalists arrived at the scene forcing the settlers to back off. The second eviction was stopped after the family’s lawyer issued a temporary injunction order minutes before the Israeli police broke through the front door of the house. The injunction order was only valid for yesterday the 16th of March and the family could be evicted at any given time, knowing that the family had appealed the Magistrate Court’s Decision last December and an appeal session in the District Court is scheduled on the 31st of May. Despite the pending appeal, the Israeli court has twice rejected the request to issue an injunction until the appeal session takes place.

The family has a protected tenant status, whereby the house was leased in 1953 from the Jordanian Guardian of Absentee and Enemy Property; that is property which was owned by Palestinians and Jews who fled in 1948. After Israel occupied and annexed East Jerusalem, the property along with hundreds of properties under a similar status were taken over by the Israeli Guardian of Absentee Property. The protected tenant status is nevertheless still valid and the family continues to pay the rent and are thus protected tenants as per Israeli law which was forced on East Jerusalem in violation of International Law.

In 2010, the Israeli Guardian of Absentee Property passed the ownership of the property to Ateret Cohanim, an Israeli settler organization with the publicly declared aim of creating a Jewish majority in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Ateret Cohanim petitioned the Israeli Magistrate’s Court requesting the eviction of the family claiming that the family has deserted the house and thus lost their protected tenancy status. The Court exclusively based its verdict on testimonies by settlers affiliated with Ateret Cohanim. Furthermore, the judge who issued the verdict is herself a settler. The family expects to be evicted at any given time, so sign the petition and stop the eviction of the Sub Laban family.