By Oyintari Ben
Despite French government objections, Israel claimed it deported a Palestinian lawyer and activist to France early on Sunday based on his alleged affiliation with a prohibited militant organisation.
Salah Hammouri’s removal highlighted the precarious position of Palestinians in east Jerusalem, which Israel has annexed, where the majority have revocable resident privileges but are not Israeli citizens. Additionally, it potentially sparked a diplomatic incident with France, which had repeatedly urged Israel to refrain from carrying out the expulsion.
Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked declared in a videotaped statement that “justice was served today and the terrorist Salah Hammouri was deported from Israel.” Just before 10 a.m. local time, he was scheduled to touch down in Paris.
Hammouri was raised in France but was born in Jerusalem.
Hammouri, according to Israel, is an activist for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which it has designated as a terrorist group. He has served as a legal representative for Adameer, a human rights organization that represents Palestinian detainees that Israel has expelled for alleged ties to the PFLP.
He was sentenced to seven years in prison for an alleged murder plot against a famous rabbi, but was later freed in a 2011 prisoner swap with the Hamas militant organization. In the most recent case against him, there has been no conviction.
Israel, on the other hand, asserted that he continued his involvement with the prohibited organization, revoked his residency, and put him in administrative detention in March of last year. This status enables Israel to detain suspected militants for extended periods of time without bringing charges against them or putting them on trial. In the latest case, Hammouri was not charged, but Shaked ordered his deportation when his detention order ran out. An appeal against the order to terminate Hammouri’s resident status has been denied by Israel’s Supreme Court.
Shaked’s apparent successor as interior minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s new administration, Aryeh Deri, praised Shaked for carrying out Hammouri’s deportation and described it as “the end of a long but legitimate legal process.”
It was unknown if France would accept Hammouri. According to a prior statement from the Foreign Ministry, “he must be able to exercise all of his rights and enjoy a normal life in Jerusalem, his city of birth and domicile.”
