Franco-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri, expelled by Israel, arrived in Paris
Franco-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri upon his arrival at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport near Paris, December 18, 2022. © AFP / DAPHNE BENOIT
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Israel expelled, this Sunday morning, December 18, the Franco-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri, who had been detained without formal charge in Israeli prisons since March 2022, announced the Israeli Ministry of the Interior.
The man landed at Paris-CDG airport at the end of the morning, "
the fight continues
" he said on his arrival.
For the NGO Amnesty International, the expulsion of the lawyer is a serious violation of human rights.
France condemns and considers
this expulsion "
contrary to law ".
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Salah Hamouri “
was deported to France this morning following Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked’s decision to withdraw his residency status
,” the Israeli Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Aged 37, Salah Hamouri was sentenced in March 2022 to three months of administrative detention, a controversial measure allowing Israel to incarcerate suspects without formal charges.
A planned eviction
The Franco-Palestinian lawyer arrived at Paris Roissy airport around 11:20 a.m. (Paris time), welcomed by his wife Elsa and several dozen people mobilized on his behalf, noted an AFP journalist.
Several elected officials, representatives of NGOs and supporters of the Palestinian cause had made the trip to welcome the 37-year-old lawyer, detained since March in Israel.
Suspected by Israel of links - which he denies - with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an organization deemed terrorist by the Jewish State and the European Union, Salah Hamouri had learned at the end of November that he was going be deported in December to France.
"
It's a happy day for a family
"
On the spot, supporters of Salah Hamouri had unfurled a banner "Welcome Salah" and some were waving Palestinian flags.
A dozen police officers were deployed on the spot.
"
It's a happy day for a family that comes together, but for the Palestinian people, it's a sad day
," Amnesty International France president Jean-Claude Samouiller told AFP, qualifying the deportation of East Jerusalem-born lawyer for '
crime of apartheid
'.
“
Today, I am brutally torn from my homeland by this occupying force, which has continued this ethnic cleansing since 1948. I am convinced that this machine of destruction which is called Israel only backs down before a Palestinian resistance project
,” said Salah Hamouri, after thanking the people who supported him during his “
months of imprisonment
”.
"
It's not because the State of Israel expelled me that we won't come back
," he told the press, very moved and with a lump in his throat.
“
It is my right to live in Jerusalem.
It is my right to live in my homeland.
It's my family's right to be there.
»
Dozens of people await the arrival of Franco-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport near Paris on December 18, 2022. © AFP / DAPHNE BENOIT
His deportation was initially postponed following military court hearings, with his lawyers challenging his deportation order and also the revocation of his status as an East Jerusalem resident.
Born in this part of the Holy City, annexed and occupied by the Jewish state, Salah Hamouri does not have Israeli nationality but a residence permit, which the Israeli authorities have revoked, which he disputes.
However, at the beginning of December, the Israeli authorities confirmed the revocation of his status, thus paving the way for an imminent expulsion despite a new hearing scheduled for January 1.
An expulsion “
contrary to the law
”
Since Friday evening, the indications of an expulsion Sunday morning had multiplied, the Israeli Arab deputy Aïda Touma-Slimane having moreover written Saturday evening to the Minister of Defense Benny Gantz to prevent the expulsion, however decreed by the minister Interior Ayelet Shaked.
Hamouri's expulsion comes as a change of administration approaches in Israel, with a handover expected in the coming days between centrist Yair Lapid's ragtag coalition and a government led by Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties.
"
It is a tremendous achievement to have been able to bring about, just before the end of my mandate, his expulsion
", commented Ms. Shaked.
In a press release published in the morning by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France condemned Israel's expulsion of lawyer Salah Hamouri, judging it "
contrary to law
".
"
Since his last arrest, France has taken full action, including at the highest level of the State, to ensure that Mr. Salah Hamouri's rights are respected, that he benefits from all possible remedies and that he can lead a normal life in Jerusalem, where he was born, resides and wishes to live
”, recalls the Quai d'Orsay.
(
With
AFP)
►Also read
: Franco-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri on hunger strike against his administrative detention
Ayelet Shaked, Israel's "Iron Lady"
A figurehead of the right wing of the outgoing Israeli government, Ayelet Shaked, in her capacity as interior minister, has been dubbed the 'Iron Lady' for her intransigence in cracking down on nationalist acts committed by Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, recalls our correspondent in Jerusalem,
Michel Paul
.
She also came out very firmly in favor of the expulsion of immigrant workers in an illegal situation.
And it was she who led the fight against the Franco-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri from the start: “
After revoking the residence permit of the terrorist Salah Hamouri, I ordered his expulsion from the country.
There is no reason why terrorists like Hamouri and his ilk, whose sole purpose is to harm Jews and Israel, can continue to live here
.”
An ally of Naftali Bennett, the former Prime Minister, Ayelet Shaked largely caused the downfall of the current government with untenable positions, particularly for the Ra'am party, the coalition partner: "
I hope the new government will continue what i am doing and also deport terrorists
".
A few days before the appointment of the new Israeli government, and after its failure in the elections, the expulsion of Salah Hamouri is probably Ayelet Shaked's last decision as minister.
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