Bethlehem / PNN / 

Palestinians have been facing policies of ethnic cleansing and forced displacement across the West Bank, from the north to the south, including the Jordan Valley and occupied Jerusalem. These racist policies are being implemented by Israel using various legal tools and methods, as seen in the forced displacement of Palestinians from the Old City of Jerusalem. One such family, the Sub Laban family, faced eviction, claiming that their home, where they have lived for decades, does not belong to them.

A report prepared by Alrowwad Cultural And Arts Society, under the Human Rights Investment Program funded by the French ASTM Foundation, highlights various forms of daily violations faced by Palestinians, leading to forced displacement, in violation of international laws and conventions, notably the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians in Times of Occupation and War.

The report documents examples of human rights violations that lead to ethnic cleansing and forced displacement in different Palestinian regions, from Jerusalem to the northern and southern Jordan Valley, to areas classified as C according to the Oslo Peace Accords between Palestinians and Israelis, which Israel has not adhered to.

Within the context of Israeli violations that lead to forced displacement, the Sub Laban family in the occupied Old City of Jerusalem experienced being forcibly evicted from their home after the Israeli "Enforcement and Execution Department" forcefully set a period from June 28 to July 13 for the eviction. Previously, the occupation authorities had set June 11 as the date for the family's eviction, but they were unable to implement the decision at that time.

The eviction decision came after the so-called Israeli Supreme Court previously issued a decision to terminate the protected lease contract of the elderly couple, Nora Sub Laban (68 years old) and Mustafa Sub Laban (72 years old), in order to pave the way for the seizure of the property by the "Galtizia" settlement association, which has been seeking to evict the family since 2010. The Israeli courts had previously evicted the rest of the family in 2016 and prevented the children from living with their parents, resulting in the family's dispersion.

The Sub Laban family's home is located just meters away from Al-Aqsa Mosque and has been rented from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan since 1953, under a protected lease.

In 2010, the "Galtizia Settlement Association" claimed that the family's home is a Jewish religious endowment (waqf), and based on this claim, the Israeli courts decided to terminate the protected lease for the family and evict them from the house. This came after numerous sessions and various decisions dating back to the 1980s, in an attempt to seize ownership of the property.

Nora Sub Laban, 68 years old, expressed feeling injustice, oppression, and persecution after being evicted from her home, where she lived for many years. She warned that her family won't be the last to be forced by the Israeli occupation to leave their homes.

With tears of pain and sorrow, she pleaded with the international community and the United Nations to urgently intervene and put an end to her forced displacement and the seizure of her home.

She said that she and ten women from her family, along with their children, are living under the conditions of a new catastrophe amid the aggression. They couldn't find milk to feed a two-year-old child, and despite attempts by the Red Crescent and the Red Cross to provide it, they failed due to the obstruction by the Israeli army. She added that the occupation forced them to leave their homes in the middle of the night, and they constantly felt the fear of the ongoing gunshots.

Citizen Awad questioned the whereabouts of human rights and human rights organizations, and where is the international community that claims to advocate for human rights? Are we, in the eyes of this international community, human beings and citizens, or not? And why do they remain silent about what Israel is doing?

The continuous racist policies aimed at displacing the population prompted international human rights organizations, such as Doctors Without Borders, to break their silence and declare that what Israel and its settlers are committing is in violation of international law and falls within the policies of forced displacement that must stop.

Mohy al-Deen Abu Sabeh, a Palestinian citizen from Masafer Yatta, to whom Israel is seeking to forcibly displace, along with more than a thousand Palestinians living in caves in the hills of the southern West Bank desert, said that the Israeli authorities are relentlessly pursuing them in their already difficult lives. The Israeli army demolishes their homes, seizes their livestock, which is their source of livelihood, and targets students in schools, continuously destroying any form of life.

In addition, Abu Sabeha stated that alongside the oppressive practices, the Israeli forces also allow extremist settlers to carry out continuous attacks in recent times. He emphasized that the objective of these practices is to intimidate Palestinian citizens and forcibly displace them from their areas of residence before the establishment of the occupying state.

On the other hand, the head of the Doctors Without Borders international mission told PNN  that they have issued a report, comprising twenty-eight pages in several languages, including Arabic, English, and Hebrew, detailing the living conditions of 1,200 Palestinian citizens in Masafer Yatta. The report highlights the negative impact of occupation measures and its racist policies on their lives, as decisions for forced displacement, house demolitions, military checkpoints, and vehicle confiscations have adverse effects on their physical and mental health.

He emphasized that the organization condemns all Israeli measures that violate international laws and calls on everyone to work towards removing the obstacles that prevent Palestinians from accessing various healthcare services. The organization has been forced to relocate mobile clinics in multiple areas to assist people in accessing these services due to the hurdles imposed by Israel.

Despite facing difficulties and punitive measures by Israeli authorities, Palestinian human rights organizations have not been deterred from their humanitarian, rights-based, and legal work. According to Farid al-Atrash, the director of the Independent Commission for Human Rights in the southern West Bank, forced displacement is a crime that violates international humanitarian law, especially the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court. Moreover, it violates the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit such displacement and consider it as forced and must be halted.

The Independent Commission for Human Rights continues its efforts, working alongside other Palestinian human rights organizations, to report the challenging humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories. Al-Atrash questions why some human rights organizations and countries remain silent on the war crimes committed by Israel, which violate international law. He also questions why the international community continues with a double standard policy and stresses that these Israeli practices must come to an end.