Leading human rights group Amnesty International has declared Israel’s deportation of French-Palestinian human rights defender Salah Hammouri as a “war crime”.
On Sunday morning, the Israeli occupation Interior Ministry said that the French-Palestinian lawyer was deported “to France following Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked’s decision to withdraw his residency status.”
The lawyer arrived on Sunday in Paris, where he was welcomed by his wife Elsa, politicians, representatives of rights groups, and supporters at the French capital’s Charles de Gaulle airport.
Hammouri had been held without charge or trial under Israel’s administrative detention, which ultimately allows Israeli occupation to detain Palestinian indefinitely.
Hammouri was a peaceful activist and human rights lawyer but despite this was still held in administrative detention. His expulsion concluded a long legal battle in Israeli courts that started in October last year, when Israeli revoked his residency rights in his home city of Jerusalem.
In November, Israeli authorities said Hammouri would be forcibly deported to France because of his alleged “breach of allegiance to the State of Israel” and “based on secret evidence he cannot challenge.”
Amnesty International described the move as “unlawful… made possible by a network of laws and policies designed to maintain apartheid over Palestinians” in a statement on Wednesday.
Israel/OPT: A perfect storm of apartheid policies led to Salah Hammouri’s deportation
“His deportation, and the revocation of his East Jerusalem residency status, are based on a 2018 amendment to the Entry into Israel Law, which gives the Minister of the Interior broad discretionary powers to revoke the status of Jerusalem permanent residents… considered to have ‘breached allegiance’ to the State of Israel,” Amnesty stated.
“This violates international law as allegiance to the occupying power is not required from an occupied population,” the statement adds.
The deportation displays “the Israeli authorities’ utter disdain for international law, and illustrates the discriminatory laws and policies which form the heart of the apartheid system”, according to the rights group’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa Dina Eltahawy.
