Israel plans to deport Palestinian-French rights lawyer

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Israel plans to deport Palestinian-French rights lawyer

Israel has stripped a prominent Palestinian-French human rights lawyer of his Jerusalem residency and is expected to deport him to France, a legal first that sets a dangerous precedent for other Palestinians in the contested city with dual nationality.

In October 2021, Salah Hamouri, 37, had his Jerusalem residency revoked on the grounds of a breach of allegiance to the Israeli state, based on secret evidence. Israel alleges that he is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is designated by Israel's western allies as a terrorist organisation.

East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel in the 1967 war, unlike the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which are defined under international law as occupied territories. The 300,000 Palestinians living there are granted revocable Israeli residency permits, but very few have full Israeli citizenship.

Hamouri has been in administrative detention without charge or trial since March 7 and went on hunger strike for three weeks in September. Earlier this week, Israel s supreme court rejected an appeal against the order stripping him of his residency, and on Wednesday the outgoing interior minister, Ayelet Shaked, announced that the state plans to deport him to France.

This is the first time Israeli law has been implemented in such a way that a person who has dual nationality is intended to be deported. Dani Shenhar, an attorney with HaMoked, an Israeli human rights group that is fighting his case, said the implications are grave for other Jerusalemites with dual nationality.

Hamouri has been imprisoned by Israel on several previous occasions, including serving a seven-year sentence between 2005 and 11 for his alleged role in a plot to assassinate a chief rabbi.

After his innocence was maintained during three years of pre-trial detention, he eventually took a plea bargain on the advice of his lawyer in order to avoid a 14 year sentence or deportation, which would likely mean losing his Jerusalem residency.

His wife, French national Elsa Lefort, was deported after arriving at Tel Aviv's airport in 2016 and given a 10 year entry ban. She and the couple's two young children live in France and have not been allowed to visit or even speak to Hamouri on the phone since he was arrested in March.

A spokeswoman for JusticeforSalah campaign said this is the most severe attack against Salah despite the long persecution he has already endured.

Salah has made it very clear to the world that he would rather choose prison than to be deported from his hometown of Jerusalem. This should tell the world what it means to be in his homeland and hometown. The deportation decision threatens to spark a diplomatic spat with Paris. France follows Salah Hamouri's situation very closely and at the highest level of the French foreign ministry in a statement.

He must be able to have a normal life in Jerusalem, where he was born and where he lives, and his wife and children must be able to travel there to get back with him. According to Palestinian prisoners rights group Addameer, 820 Palestinians are currently being held in administrative detention, the highest number in a decade.

In early 2023, HaMoked plans to file a petition on Hamouri's behalf.