Israel says it expelled Franco-Palestinian human rights lawyer Salah Hammouri, ending a years-long attempt to deport the Jerusalem-born lawyer who had been detained since March.
The expulsion came amid calls for French President Emmanuel Macron to oppose deportation to France, whose foreign ministry spokesman had said in the past that Hammouri “must be able to exercise all his rights and lead a life in general in Jerusalem, his place of birth and residence. “
The French Foreign Ministry condemned Israel’s expulsion of Hammouri after he landed in Paris and said it had “taken all measures, adding to the highest state level, to ensure that the rights of Mr. Salah Hamouri, who benefits from all legal remedies, are respected. and that he can lead a general life in Jerusalem, where he was born, lives, and desires to live.
It is not transparent what measures, if any, the French government can take.
Hammouri landed in Paris shortly before 10 a. m. local time. Dressed in a black tracksuit and a black and white keffiyeh, or Palestinian veil, around his neck, he waved through his wife and an organization of supporters.
Some hugged him and others applauded in support.
Speaking to reporters, Hammouri accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and said its expulsion was aimed at “showing generations that no one can resist Israel. “He promised to fight order.
“I will maintain my right to resist this profession until I have the right to return to my country,” he said.
Earlier, the Justice for Salah crusade released an audio message from Hammouri, which he said was recorded when he was “forcibly expelled and uprooted from my homeland. “
“Rest assured, dear country, that I leave you today in a coercive and forced manner. I leave you today from criminal to exile,” he said. But rest assured, I will still be the user you know. Always faithful to you and your freedom.
On a brief Sunday, Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked called Hammouri a “terrorist” and showed he had been deported. Hammour’s reputation as a residence in Jerusalem had already been revoked in Israel in 2021.
The Israeli government says Hammouri is an activist with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Hammouri denied the accusation.
– JusticeforSalah (@JusticeforSalah) December 18, 2022
The arrest of Hammouri, a cash investigator for the Ramallah-based prisoners’ rights organization Addameer, drew condemnation from foreign human rights observers.
In early December, Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, accused Hammouri of being detained “in retaliation for his tireless crusade to end anti-Palestinian Israeli apartheid. “
He called the detention “Israel’s long-term political purpose of reducing the number of Palestinians in East Jerusalem. “
“The illegal expulsion from the occupied Palestinian territories constitutes a grave violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and a war crime,” he said, noting that such crimes would fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). A formula of apartheid constitutes a crime against humanity. “
Hammouri, a 37-year-old father of two, had been placed in Israeli administrative detention, in which Palestinians would be imprisoned without trial or qualification on the basis of “secret evidence,” which neither the detainee nor his lawyer can see, for a time. year. Indefinite.
– HaMoked (@HaMokedRights) December 17, 2022
Israel has long maintained that the policy is for security to avoid the release of state intelligence, however, the Israeli human rights organization B’tselem says the approach is being used “as an option for the trial of the offender. . . when [authorities] don’t have enough evidence to charge. “The organization calls the procedures “punitive and retroactive” and says Israel uses them to “detain Palestinians for their political criticism and for engaging in nonviolent political activities. “
The detainer was renewed in June and September, and the deportation announced Sunday came at the end of the last extension.
In a tweet late Saturday, the human rights organization HaMoked, which was fighting against Hammouri’s eviction, questioned whether France would “expel a member of the indigenous population who opposes its will. “
La France has not issued a public about the eviction.
In a letter through the New Arab last week, Hammouri, who is part of an organization of human rights activists suing Israel after its phones were allegedly hacked through Pegasus spyware created through Israeli surveillance company NSO Group, detailed his detention, which he called “the Eighth Deportation Attempt. “
In the past, he served a seven-year criminal sentence for plotting to kill a former Israeli rabbi leader, a deal he accepted rather than be deported to France, though he has denied the allegation.
His wife, Elsa Lefort, had previously been deported.
On Sunday, the Justice for Salah crusade called the deportation “a terrifying escalation of Israel’s systematic practices of ethnically cleansing Palestinians from illegally occupied and annexed Jerusalem (al-Quds). “
Palestinians born in occupied East Jerusalem are granted Israeli citizenship. Instead, they get permanent residency, which can be revoked.