Yesterday, Sunday, Israel deported a Palestinian human rights activist who was under administrative detention from Jerusalem to France, while Paris condemned the decision and considered it illegal.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club (non-governmental) said - in a statement - that "the occupation authorities deported the Jerusalemite jurist Salah Al-Hamouri (37 years old) to France, despite the fact that the legal procedures that were scheduled in his case have not yet ended."
He explained that an Israeli court had decided to "keep Al-Hamouri until the first of next January, until a decision is made on his deportation and the withdrawal of his Jerusalem ID."
The Captive Club indicated that the occupation system with its various apparatuses was not satisfied over the years of chasing Hammouri, arresting him, and deporting him from Jerusalem, to complete this crime today by deporting him to France.
He also stated that "deportation has been over the past decades the most dangerous policy that has been implemented against hundreds of Palestinians," pointing out that "the Hammouri case is an indication and a message of the return of this crime."
"Nothing can uproot Palestine from our conscience." The last words of Jerusalemite prisoner Salah al-Hamouri on the day he was deported to France pic.twitter.com/uCi1l8gA1W
- AlQastal Al-Qastal (@AlQastalps) December 18, 2022
Palestinian condemnations
For its part, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the Israeli occupation authorities forcibly deporting and deporting the Jerusalemite and human rights prisoner.
The Foreign Ministry considered that this measure constitutes a "war crime" and a violation of the rules of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, adding that the arrest and deportation of Hammouri is "a measure for which Israel must be held accountable."
And she stressed that "Israel, the authority of colonialism and apartheid, has no sovereignty over any of the land of the State of Palestine, especially in Jerusalem."
For its part, Addameer Prisoner Care and Human Rights Association (non-governmental) in Ramallah condemned the "forced transfer" of the prisoner Hammouri.
And she continued - in a statement - "Al-Hamouri has become a major target of Israel's policies to intimidate and silence those who challenge its oppressive, racist regime, including repeated arrests."
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) also considered that the deportation of Hammouri represents "an extension of the policies of ethnic cleansing and forced displacement aimed at expelling the Palestinians and removing them from their land."
L'avocat franco-palestinien #SalahHamouri vient d'arriver to the aéroport Charles de Gaulle.
He retrouve his women and his children, but he did not reverra sans doute Jamais in Terre Natale, Jérusalem-Est.
Nous sommes là pour l'accueillier.
pic.twitter.com/LfMsagtJmk
- Amnesty International France (@amnestyfrance) December 18, 2022
against the law
France condemned Israel's decision to deport Hammouri, and the French Foreign Ministry said - in a statement - "We condemn today the illegal decision of the Israeli authorities to deport Mr. Salah Hammouri to France."
She added, "Since his recent arrest, France has taken full measures, at the highest level in the country, to ensure respect for the rights of Mr. Salah Al-Hamouri, to benefit him from all legal remedies, and to enable him to live a normal life in Jerusalem, where he was born, resides and desires to live."
It also noted that France "has taken numerous steps to express to the Israeli authorities in the clearest possible way its opposition to the expulsion of a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, which is occupied territory within the meaning of the Fourth Geneva Convention."
At the beginning of December, Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked announced her decision to "cancel Hammouri's residency in Jerusalem and deport him to France, as he also holds French citizenship."
Early this month, Hamouri's mother, a French citizen, said that the Israeli authorities forced Hamouri's French wife to leave Jerusalem with his two children, after refusing her request to be reunited with her husband.
Al-Hamouri is a lawyer and human rights defender, and he was one of the employees of Addameer Prisoner Care and Human Rights Association. His mother is French and his father is Palestinian from Jerusalem, where he was born and lived.
He is married to a French woman and father of two children. He was also subjected to a systematic campaign against him by the occupation authorities, starting with his administrative and arbitrary detention, spying on his phone and monitoring it, and ending with the withdrawal of his Jerusalem residency.
