On Tuesday, the Israeli Ministry of Interior will hold a hearing for the defense team of Palestinian lawyer and human rights activist Salah Al-Hamouri against the decision to deport him from Jerusalem to France.
On Thursday, Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked announced in a statement her decision to cancel Hammouri’s residency in Jerusalem and deport him to France, as he also holds French citizenship.
On the seventh of last March, the Israeli army arrested Al-Hamouri, and the Israeli military commander issued an administrative detention order against him for a period of 3 months, ending on the sixth of June of the same year.
However, on the day set for his release, his administrative detention order was renewed for another 3 months, ending on the fifth of September, so that his administrative detention was renewed for the third time, which ends on Sunday.
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Dr. Munir Nusseibeh, director of the Community Action Center at Al-Quds University and professor of international law, said in a press conference held on Friday in East Jerusalem that the Israeli authorities “intended to implement the deportation order on Sunday.”
He added: “A hearing was supposed to be held yesterday (Thursday), but due to the absence of lawyers and Hammouri’s refusal to sign any procedure in the absence of the lawyers’ team, the hearing was not held, and his lawyer, Leah Tsemel, received a letter informing her that the hearing will be held next Tuesday, and during the session we expect that There will be another decision of forced displacement.
And he added, “The lawyers’ team intends to submit the file again to the Central Court and then to the Supreme Court to defend Hammouri to the last breath, and therefore the case has not ended. There is still a window for the legal staff to defend him, and this window will be exploited.”
At the same conference, Attorney Tsemel presented an explanation of the long path of Israeli prosecution of Hammouri and the revocation of his residency in East Jerusalem, leading to the decision to deport him.
She pointed out that the former Israeli Minister of Interior (Aryeh Deri) and then the current Minister of Interior decided to cancel Al-Hamouri’s residency in Jerusalem and deport him on the grounds of “his association with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and his formation of a threat to Israel’s security,” according to Israeli accusations.
For her part, Hammouri’s mother, Denise, a French citizen, indicated that the Israeli authorities forced Hammouri’s wife, who is French, to leave Jerusalem with his children, after refusing her request to be reunited with her husband.
Semel called on the Israeli authorities to “reverse the decision to deport Hammouri, while calling on the French government to intervene in order to prevent the deportation decision.”
For its part, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said in a statement, a copy of which Anadolu Agency received on Thursday, that Hammouri is “a former prisoner, and one of the liberators of the Wafaa al-Ahrar deal (between Hamas and Israel in 2011).”
According to the statement, “Al-Hamouri spent a total of more than 9 years in the occupation prisons, and was subjected to arrest, prosecution, and restrictions on his human rights work.”
