Bizarre Jerusalem family case shows peace, settlements incompatible
The bizarre case of the Sublaban family reflects how the Israeli settlement policy has spun out of control as a couple has been allowed to stay in its Jerusalem home for 10 years on condition that their children can’t stay with them.
Three days before the world community reiterated at the UN Security Council on Dec. 23 that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are unauthorized, the Israeli High Court was trying to justify the expulsion of a Palestinian family in Jerusalem’s Old City.
In responding to an appeal against the family's expulsion from the home it has lived in since 1953, the Israeli High Court ruled Dec. 20 that Mustafa and Nora Sublaban can stay in their home 10 more years — but on condition that their children can’t live with them so as not to transfer ownership to the third generation. A small storage room that also belonged to the family was granted to the hard-line settler movement that has been trying to expel the Sublaban family.
