France calls on Israel not to expel Franco-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri

Franco-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri, in September 2018. AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP

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France asked Israel, Sunday, September 6, to postpone the expulsion of Franco-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri, and to allow his family to join him in Jerusalem, according to diplomatic sources.

A Palestinian born in Jerusalem, a city whose eastern part was annexed by the Hebrew state in 1967, Salah Hamouri does not have Israeli nationality but a residence permit.

His wife, Elsa Lefort, a Frenchwoman, was expelled in January 2016 from Israel, with the ban on returning there for ten years.

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With our correspondent in Jerusalem,

It was Thursday, September 4, that the Israeli Interior Ministry informed Franco-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri of its intention to revoke his permanent status in Israel.

A procedure that should allow his expulsion from the country.

Salah Hamouri has one month to appeal this decision.

Considered a member of a terrorist organization

In an unusual step, the Ambassador of France in Israel, Eric Danon, addressed Sunday, September 6 to the Israeli Foreign Ministry to ask that Salah Hamouri can continue to stay in Jerusalem, and also to allow his family to join him.

The ambassador encountered an end of disallowance: Israel is working for the revocation of the lawyer's residence permit because of his membership in a terrorist organization, he was told.

An activist for the cause of Palestinian prisoners, Salah Hamouri is accused by Israel of being a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which he categorically denies.

In 2005, he was charged with planning to kill Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Released as part of a prisoner swap with Hamas, he was later placed

for

for links to an illegal organization.

► (Re) listen: Salah Hamouri: "the inter-Palestinian division is a gift for the occupation"

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