The Israeli occupation prisons administration transferred Salah Hammouri to Hadarim prison, after classifying him as a “highly dangerous” prisoner, in a retaliatory measure on grounds of his message to the French President on Wednesday, July 27th
The occupation prisons administration tightened the grip on Hammouri by placing handcuffs on his feet and hands most of the time, storming his cell at night and searching it repeatedly
It was reported that the occupation prisons administration tightened the grip on Hammouri by placing handcuffs on his feet and hands most of the time, storming his cell at night, and searching it repeatedly.
Hammouri had sent a message to Macron in the middle of this month, from his cell in Ofer prison, on the “Franch Independence Day”, in which he stressed that Macron’s practices are not related to the values of democracy nor are they a depiction of the slogan of the French Republic “freedom, fraternity, equality.”
Hammouri, who holds French citizenship, said in his letter: “I feel like a fourth- or fifth-class citizen of the French state, as France continues to tolerate and allow the Israeli occupying state to continue detaining me without charges and without a trial.”
Background
Since the occupation of the rest of Jerusalem in 1967, the Israeli occupation authorities have adopted a punitive policy to withdraw permanent residency and remove Palestinians from Jerusalem. During the month of October 2021, the occupation authorities approved the decision to revoke the identity of human rights defender and lawyer at Addameer Foundation Salah Al-Hammoury (37 years) and deprived him of permanent residence in Jerusalem on the pretext of “violating allegiance” to the occupying state.
Al-Hammouri has been serving an administrative detention period in the occupation prisons since last March, and he was renewed at the beginning of this month for another 3 months
Al-Hammouri has been serving an administrative detention period in the occupation prisons since last March, and he was renewed at the beginning of this month for another 3 months. Observers believe that Hamouri’s deportation from Jerusalem under the pretext of having a “secret file and not showing loyalty to the occupying state” is a dangerous precedent, opening the way for the passage of this policy on any Jerusalemite and his expulsion from the city.
Al-Hammouri holds French citizenship in addition to the Jerusalem ID. Since 2000, he has been prosecuted by the Israeli occupation authorities. His on and off detention have amounted to about 9 years. His Jerusalem ID was withdrawn, his phone was spied on, and his French wife, Elsa Lefort Hammouri, and his children were deported to France.
Denis Hammouri, the mother of lawyer Salah, who is French and fluent in Arabic, was in front of the Israeli Ofer prison near Ramallah to visit her son. when interviewed, she said that Salah had hopes of being released and not having his administrative detention renewed. She recounts that her son was arrested for the first time at an early age in 2001, and the number of arrests reached 6 times, with a total of 9 years, including 7 continuous years between 2005-2011, and the rest were administrative detention.
She added that since 2020, the occupation began threatening to withdraw the identity of Salah al-Qudsiyya, until the Israeli Minister of Interior signed the decision to withdraw his identity on October 18, 2021, and now there are attempts by the occupation to deport him to France. She added that his wife, while she was returning from France, was informed by the occupation that her visa had expired, and she was deported to France from the airport in 2016. She added that his wife at that time gave birth to a daughter, and Salah was at that time, before withdrawing his identity, able to travel to his family, so his life was divided between France and Palestine. He visits his family temporarily and then returns. “But when the occupation began threatening to withdraw his identity, he did not travel so as not to be prevented from entering and deported to France, and at that time he was satisfied with communicating with his family via video,” according to Hammouri.
She continues: “Now, with his arrest, he is completely cut off from his family, especially his eldest son (6 years), who constantly asks about his father, and asks what is prison? What are the conditions in which he lives? The boy here in Palestine knows the prison and hears about it constantly, But in France, he doesn’t know what prison is, so we try to simplify things for him to understand.” Salah’s mother confirmed that her son refuses to be deported to France, and says that when he intends to travel, he should travel voluntarily and not be permanently deported. She stressed that the family supports Salah in his position, and for twenty years they have been visiting him in prison and going to the courts.
Regarding the role played by the French government, his mother said that the French are required to intervene more, and “we are in constant contact with them and they have visited Salah twice in prison, but what is required of them is a greater role and more significant actions in this file.”
In turn, Sahar Francis, director of the Addameer Foundation for Prisoner Care and Human Rights, said that they are following up on the issue of the administrative detention of Salah, who in turn boycotts the military courts with administrative prisoners, “so we were unable to attend the sessions.” Regarding the nature of his arrest, she explained in an interview that Salah is being pursued based on classified information alleged and only seen by the Israeli occupation court.
and this is not the first time that he has been arrested and prosecuted for secret materials. She emphasized that the issue of secret materials is only a justification in order to justify the issue of withdrawing his Jerusalem identity before the court, so it is an arbitrary arrest. In February 2023, the High Court of Occupation is scheduled to hear the case of withdrawing the identity of lawyer Salah Hammouri.
And Francis continued, “This prosecution is not limited to activists and human rights defenders. It is true that Salah is a lawyer and a defender of human rights, but what is happening with Salah may happen with any Jerusalemite citizen, because this is a policy of displacement and deportations aimed at reducing the population in Jerusalem and controlling and maintaining it.” An area annexed by Israel and the implementation of Israeli law on it.
Sahar Francis: What is happening with Salah may happen with any Jerusalemite citizen, because this is a policy of displacement and expulsion aimes at reducing the population of Jerusalem
On the efforts they are making in this regard, Francis reported that they have taken Salah’s case to several international institutions, and they had a meeting with representatives of the European Union, and there are meetings at a diplomatic level with France and other European countries, with the aim of putting pressure on the occupation to release him. As for the French role, she indicated that they visited him three times in prison, and that they knew the conditions of his arrest and the circumstances of his family, “but we asked them to work for his release and annul the decision to withdraw his identity, and they conduct meetings with the occupation, but it is possible for France to pressure more from it part.
Addameer is working with Al-Haq Foundation and a number of human rights organizations in a joint campaign to release Al-Hammoury and annul the decision to withdraw his identity. Shawan Jabarin, director of Al-Haq Foundation, says that they consider the case of Salah Al-Hammouri one of the most dangerous cases, because one person is being used to try to formulate new policies related to the emptying of Jerusalem from its people and the deportation of the indigenous population, and this is a war crime.
He added, in an interview with Ultra Palestine, that they consider the use of Salah al-Hammouri and all the violations against him as evidence of an attempt to create a model for anyone working on any human rights issue in Jerusalem, that this will be his fate. But Al-Hammouri, according to Jabareen, had great determination, as he was offered in his second detention 7 years in prison or 15 years in deportation to France, and at that time he was young and chose prison over deportation.
Jabareen clarifies that the institutions are working on this issue and paying attention to it because of their great fear that Salah’s case will be used to lower the legal threshold in the file of canceling permanent residency in Jerusalem on a punitive basis.
He added that the remaining 14 cases of deportation cases revoking residency in Jerusalem were on the grounds of not demonstrating loyalty to the occupying state, and were based on issues related to belonging to certain political parties, such as legislative representatives from the Change and Reform bloc, or accusing them of being part of participating in the implementation of operations. “So Salah’s case is a dangerous precedent because his file is classified, and they say that he did not show loyalty to the occupying state, therefore accusing someone of this accusation on a confidential file is very dangerous, and it means that we may reach a situation in which any Jerusalemite is threatened with revocation of his residence, which is the easiest way for the occupation authorities to empty Jerusalem of palestinian families.”
He reiterated that this is one of the most serious issues, and all local and international authorities, and France in particular, must pressure the occupation to abolish this unconstitutional law. In their attempt to confront this policy, Jabareen said that since the beginning of his detention, they have started to move, and messages have been sent to international bodies, including an urgent appeal to the United Nations and special rapporteurs in the field of human rights and arbitrary detention.
He added that after the Israeli Minister of Interior, Ayelet Shaked issued a decision to cancel Salah’s permanent residency, work increased and Salah was helped to resort to international courts. In France, a case was filed with the French Public Prosecutor, with the help of the International Federation for Human Rights, against the NSO company that developed the “Pegasus” spyware program, and Salah was one of the victims of this program, as he was at the time when his phone was hacked on a visit to his family in France.
The second case, according to Shawan Jabarin, is the appeal to the International Criminal Court, and here the case was addressed to the Center for Constitutional Rights in the United States, which adopted the case. The file was submitted to the International Criminal, and specifically to the Office of the Prosecutor, Karim Khan, in a more comprehensive and important framework related to the seriousness of the issue of residency revocation of Jerusalemites, and that this is an attempt on a much greater level than previous attempts to revoke residency permits.
Jabareen added that when Salah was arrested, a campaign called “Justice for Salah” was launched, which included a number of local and international human rights organizations. Salah has been subjected to seven different types of violations from 2000 until today, and each of these institutions is working on a violation that falls within its jurisdiction. For example, campaign center is working on the digital violation, the right on the violation of human rights in general, and the abolition of permanent residence in Jerusalem. Addameer is working on the issue of administrative detention, and there are those working on the investigation of the hacking of Salah Hammouri’s phone.
Regarding what these institutions fear, he stated that the Israeli Supreme Court decided on a session to consider the issue of revocation of residency on February 6, 2023, “and we fear that he will remain in administrative detention until the date of the session and then take a final decision and confirm the revocation of residency, and then deport him.” to France
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