The Sub Laban family: Israel's settler expansion in Jerusalem's Old City

On Sunday morning, Israeli settlers who seized the Sub Laban family’s home in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City a week ago tossed out their furniture, as the family and activists gathered outside to demonstrate against the forced displacement.

During the protest, which culminated in one of the sons, Rafat Sub Laban, being detained for seven hours, settlers in the neighbourhood chanted and danced as the family’s belongings were left discarded on the street.

Nora Ghayth, 68, and her husband, Mustafa Sub Laban, 72, were expelled from their home on 11 July when police broke in at around 6 am and forcibly removed Mustafa Sub Laban along with six Israeli activists. Ghayth, who lived with him, was hospitalised the night before.

"The settlers who live in our neighbourhood, they actually call it 'the new Jewish Quarter'. And this is what's happening, they're working to expand the Jewish Quarter into the Muslim Quarter"

After 45 years of legal battles with the state and settler organisations, the Israeli Supreme Court terminated the couple’s protected tenancy status in 2022 and ruled that they must leave their home by 15 March 2023.

When the family refused, the Israeli Enforcement and Collection Authority served them an eviction order in May, demanding they vacate by 11 June or forcible removal would be used.

A decades-long fight against Israel's state and settlers

Ghayth was born in the home, which her family began renting in 1953 from the Jordanian Custodian of Enemy Property, created to manage alleged Jewish-owned properties after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

The family became protected tenants under Jordanian custodianship, but everything changed when their property was transferred to Israel’s General Custodian after Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.

The General Custodian hiked up the rent and began threatening the family with eviction in 1975 over insufficient payments. Through a lawyer, the family was able to negotiate a compromise and continued paying the original amount according to their contract.

Eviction threats started up again in 2010 when the custodian handed the property to an endowment for Jews arriving from Galicia, a region in south-eastern Poland, and western Ukraine. The Galicia Trust emerged from Atara L’yoshna, a consortium of settler groups established in 1979 with the goal of turning the Old City’s Muslim Quarter into a Jewish-only neighbourhood.

Ateret Cohanim, the notorious settler group responsible for displacing Palestinians across occupied East Jerusalem, originated from Atara L’yoshna.

The Galicia Trust obtained ownership of the building using Israel’s 1970 Legal and Administrative Law, a discriminatory piece of legislation affording Jews (yet not giving the same right to Palestinians) the opportunity to “reclaim” properties lost before 1948.

"It's all settler organisations, acting under the names of different trusts, different companies, and this is how they do it. They obscure the responsibility, so you don't know who's really behind it"

The trust spent years trying to nullify the family’s protected tenancy, claiming their low electricity usage and Ghayth’s hospitalisation meant the family weren’t full-time residents.

The Jerusalem High Court sided with the trust in 2016, determining the family had violated the terms of their protected tenancy. In the ruling, Ghayth and Sub Laban could remain in the home for another 10 years as protected tenants, but their children could not - stripping them of their third-generation protected tenant status.

In 2019, the endowment filed a final eviction lawsuit against the family, alleging Ghayth’s continued absence from the home because she was hospitalised violated the family’s protected tenancy. The lower courts ruled in favour of the trust, and the High Court rejected the family’s appeal. Having exhausted all legal avenues, the family was then evicted and replaced by settlers.

Settler takeover of the Old City

At the centre of the eviction proceedings is Eli Attal, who acted as the representative of the Galicia Trust in court. Attal declined to comment for this story, saying he doesn’t give press interviews.

He’s the owner of two private companies noted as the plaintiffs in several eviction lawsuits throughout the Old City’s Muslim Quarter over the last decade: Ir Al Tilah and Hevron 33 Street LLC.

The Ghayth-Sub Laban family alleges Hevron 33 Street LLC manages the Galicia Trust. He’s also been involved in several endowments initiating evictions against Palestinians in the Muslim Quarter - all under allegations the property belonged to Jews before 1948.

“The people who are filing for eviction are not descendants of the original Jewish tenants,” Rafat Sub Laban told The New Arab. “It’s all settler organisations, acting under the names of different trusts, different companies, and this is how they do it. They obscure the responsibility, so you don't know who's really behind it.”

In 2012, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ruled the Razak family was forced to cease all renovation work on their Old City home because of a case brought by Attal’s firm, Hevron 33 Street LLC.

Attal has been involved in eviction lawsuits brought by the Pinchas Aharon Naminsky endowment and Jewish institutions Kolal and Ahlin Association and Talmud Torah Association and Chai Olam Yeshiva.

He acted as their representative in 2017 and testified on behalf of the plaintiffs in 2019 against Palestinian families living on Khalediya Street in the Muslim Quarter, above the Sub Laban family’s home - again the issue was about protected tenancy rights.

Attal was also instrumental in the 2019 eviction of the Abu Assab family, who lived adjacent to the Sub Laban family.

"Around 20 properties have been seized by settlers in the Muslim Quarter since the mid-1970s, with at least 10 homes still at risk of eviction"

“The settlers who live in our neighbourhood, they actually call it ‘the new Jewish Quarter,’” Rafat Sub Laban said. “And this is what's happening, they're working to expand the Jewish Quarter into the Muslim Quarter.”

According to Rafat Sub Laban, around 20 properties have been seized by settlers in the Muslim Quarter since the mid-1970s, with at least 10 homes still at risk of eviction.  

A map produced by Jerusalem-focused non-profit organization, Ir Amim, shows several settler homes that have popped up over the years surrounding the Sub Laban’s house.

Yet today, along the Sub Laban’s street, you don’t need a map to tell you settler expansion is happening. The countless Israeli flags adorned across the Muslim Quarter speak volumes.

Jessica Buxbaum is a Jerusalem-based journalist covering Palestine and Israel. Her work has been featured in Middle East Eye, The National, and Gulf News.

Follow her on Twitter: @jess_buxbaum