'They stole the house': Israel expels Palestine family from Jerusalem home

Israeli police have expelled a Palestinian family from their home in occupied East Jerusalem to make way for illegal Jewish settlers after a long legal battle, officials and an AFP news agency correspondent said.

Since 1978, the Ghaith-Sub Laban family had fought in the Israeli courts against their expulsion from their home in the Muslim Quarter of the walled Old City.

But early on Tuesday, police arrived to remove the family from their home following a court order.

"They do not have the right to expel me from my house," Nora Abu Laban, 68, told AFP. "They are thieves and they steal everything from us, they stole the house, the lands, the youth."

"My tears and all my crying is just sadness for losing my home, I'm parting with my entire life and all my memories that are in this house. But I'm not weak," she said.

Her son, Ahmad Sub-Laban, said the family was barred from reentering the premises.

"When we got back in front of the house, we faced the new reality that our main entrance had been closed and we don't have the right to use it anymore," he said. "They took the key and changed the lock."

Israeli and Palestinian activists jostled with police in the aftermath of the expulsion.

One held a placard that read "A family was evicted today" as illegal Jewish settlers looked on, video footage filmed by AFP showed.

Others chanted "Occupation no more" at passersby outside the block of apartments as police stood by. Some illegal Jewish settlers danced and smiled as they stared at the distraught family.

The Ghaith-Sub Laban family said authorities did not let them back into the house to recover furniture or medicine for the mother and another son, Rafat. They were only able to grab one item as the authorities forced them out — a plant that has been in the family for 17 years.

"We decided to take it to remember that we lived here, our children grew up here and that we are looking forward to returning to the house," Ahmad Sub Laban said.

In May, the Ghaith-Sub Laban family had been served with an expulsion notice and told to vacate the building by June 11.

The "family was forcibly evicted from their home by Israeli police," Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for Palestinians, said in a statement.

He said 12 Israeli activists protesting against the expulsion, seven women and five men, were arrested.

"Concerted efforts to evict Palestinians from their homes in occupied east Jerusalem may amount to forcible transfer," Sunghay said.

"Forcible transfer is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime."

'Zionist war on Arab identity'

The European Union expressed "regret" over the decision.

It urged the "Israeli government to respect international law and let these families live where they have been living for decades".

Hazem Qasem, a spokesperson for Hamas, which governs Palestine's besieged Gaza enclave, described the expulsion as a "crime" and part of the "Zionist war on the Arab identity of Jerusalem".

The illegal Jewish settlers are part of an organisation called Atara Leyoshna.

According to anti-settlement watchdog Ir Amim, some 150 Palestinian families in East Jerusalem's Old City and nearby neighbourhoods are currently threatened with expulsion because of "discriminatory laws and state collusion with [illegal] settler organisations".

The group says such expulsions are part of "a strategy to cement Israeli hegemony of the Old City basin, the most religiously and politically sensitive part of Jerusalem and a core issue of the conflict".

Today, more than 220,000 illegal Jewish settlers live in occupied East Jerusalem, largely in built-up settlements. Most of East Jerusalem's 350,000 Palestinian residents are crammed into overcrowded neighbourhoods where there is little room to build.

Israel captured East Jerusalem's Old City in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, before annexing it in a move regarded as illegal by the UN.

Last month, Israel advanced plans for building more than 5,700 illegal settlement units in the occupied West Bank amid condemnations from Palestinians.

Estimates indicate that around 700,000 illegal Israeli settlers are living in 164 unlawful settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank.

Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal.