RAMALLAH: France has denounced Israel’s expulsion of Salah Hamouri, a French Palestinian human rights lawyer who had been held in an Israeli prison without indictment since March after being suspected of security violations.
Hamouri, 37, had been arrested in Israel under a contentious system called as administrative detention, which allows suspects to be kept for up to six months indefinitely.
He arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport on Sunday morning, capping off a lengthy legal process following his deportation.
“I have changed place but the fight continues,” Hamouri said at the airport, where he was met by his wife Elsa, lawmakers, NGO representatives and supporters of the Palestinian cause.
According to the Israeli Interior Ministry, the former prisoner was deported after Israel revoked his Jerusalem residency two weeks earlier based on charges that he was participating in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP.
His father, Hassan Hamouri, called the expulsion a “first-degree war crime.”
In an interview with Arab News, Hassan accused Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked of being a “failure” and “wanting to display an achievement” before leaving government after losing recent elections.
Hamouri expressed his dismay that France did not make measures to prevent his son’s deportation.
He said it was “insufficient” that the French Embassy and consulate did not inform the Hamouri family of their deportation decision on Sunday morning, but instead shut off their phones, making contact impossible.
Salah’s mother, a French national, told Arab News that her government had let her family down by abandoning the 37-year-old.
France’s Foreign Ministry said that the deportation was “against the law,” adding that officials had been working “to ensure that Salah Hamouri’s rights are respected, that he benefits from all means of recourse and that he can lead a normal life in Jerusalem, where he was born, resides and wishes to live.”
“We protest today the Israeli authorities’ decision, against the law, to remove Salah Hamouri to France,” said a statement.
It stated France’s “resistance to the removal of a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, designated as an occupied territory under the Fourth Geneva Convention.”
Palestinian leaders voiced worry that the repatriation of Hamouri might set a precedent for Israel to follow in relocating other Palestinian inmates.
“Deporting a Palestinian from their hometown for failing to pledge allegiance to the state of Israel is a dangerous precedent and a serious violation of basic rights,” stated HaMoked, an Israel-based human rights organization.
HaMoked earlier disputed the decision to remove Hamouri’s residency and filed an injunction to prevent the deportation. The Supreme Court rejected both pleas.
The organization stated that once the new Israeli government takes office in the coming weeks, it will submit a new petition with the High Court.
Hamouri was born in Jerusalem to a Palestinian father and French mother. He was raised and educated at Palestinian schools and institutions.
Several years ago, Israeli authorities began to follow him, barring him from visiting the West Bank and deporting his French wife to her home country “despite the legality of her presence” in Jerusalem.
Hamouri was rearrested and his administrative detention was renewed three times in a row at the start of this year.
With the conclusion of his incarceration time nearing, Hamouri was notified of the plan to deport him to France.
On Sunday morning, he was moved from Hadarim Prison to Ben Gurion Airport.
“During his life, he organized, incited and planned to carry out terrorist attacks personally and for the organization against people and notable figures in Israel,” an Israeli Interior Ministry statement alleged.
In a voice message recorded on the official Palestinian civil society campaign for Hamouri’s Instagram account, the lawyer stated that he was being “forcibly deported and exiled from my motherland.”
“I leave you today from prison to exile,” Hamouri said in the statement. But just know that I will always be the same person you know. Always devoted to you and your liberty.”
The 37-year-old, who has been in the Israeli prison since March on administrative detention without official charges, has denied involvement in terrorist organizations.
Human rights organizations have slammed Israel’s conduct.
Hamouri has always claimed innocence.
In 2005, he was tried and convicted of conspiring on a plan to assassinate Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, founder of the Shas ultra-orthodox political organization.
He was released in 2011 as part of an exchange of 1,027 Palestinian and other Arab detainees held by Israel in exchange for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Hamas in 2006.
He had since been living and working as a lawyer in Jerusalem, including working as a human rights lawyer for Addameer, a group that aids Palestinian detainees. UN officials criticised Israel’s decision to prohibit Addameer.
The Palestinian National Initiative Movement condemned Hamouri’s expulsion.
“Israel’s despicable criminal behavior is a dangerous precedent that breaches all human and international values and is a war crime,” the organization claimed.
The condemnation came as PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Hussein Al-Sheikh claimed that calls from hardline Israeli groups to storm Al-Aqsa Shrine to light a menorah aimed to “perpetuate the temporal and spatial separation” of the mosque.
Extremist groups began storming Al-Aqsa Mosque in huge numbers on Sunday.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, international political, diplomatic, and legal action to cease Israeli crimes is ongoing, in close coordination with Jordan.
Also on Sunday, hundreds of Palestinians took part in the funeral of the two brothers, Mohammed, 37, and Muhannad Youssef Matir, 19, in Qalandia camp.
On Saturday evening, they were ran over and killed by an Israeli settler near the Za’tara military checkpoint south of Nablus.
The incident took occurred while the two brothers stood on the side of a road to mend a tire, joined by others of their family.
At the funeral, mourners yelled angry slogans decrying Israel’s occupation and settler movement.
A general strike to grieve the brothers’ deaths spread to the town of Kufur Aqab and the Qalandia camp.
The deaths were described by Israeli authorities as an unintended road accident.
Source: Arab News