Israel expels French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri
Israel has expelled French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri, it emerges on Sunday.
A lifelong resident of Jerusalem was escorted onto a flight to France by police early on Sunday morning, according to Israel’s interior ministry.
Salah Hammouri, 37, was stripped of his residency rights after officials accused him of being a member of a terrorist organisation.
Israel’s interior ministry in a statement said that it has deported a Palestinian-French human rights lawyer after accusing him of security threats.
The French foreign ministry expressed disappointment at the decision, and stating that it condemns “the Israeli authorities’ decision, against the law, to expel Salah Hammouri to France”.
Israeli interior ministry alleged that Mr Hammouri had “organised, inspired and planned to commit terror attacks” against “citizens and well-known Israelis”.
Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, part of the outgoing Israeli government, hailed the move as a personal success.
“Justice has been done to the terrorist and he has been deported from Israel,” she said in a statement, adding, “This was a long and protracted process and it is a tremendous achievement that I was able to bring about his deportation just before the end of my duties, using the tools at my disposal to advance the fight against terrorism.”
Timeline of Salah Hamouri’s being detained in Isreal:
In 2005, Hamouriwas jailed for six years after being accused of attempting to assassinate an ultra-Orthodox rabbi and political leader, however, he denied it.
In March this year, Hammouri was arrested and the Israeli military commander in the occupied West Bank ordered that he be held without charge or trial for three months under what is known as administrative detention.
While in late September, Hammouri began a hunger strike to protest against his administrative detention.
He ended it after 19 days, during which he was reportedly placed in solitary confinement.
In November 2022, Israeli authorities informed Hammouri that he would be deported without trial, but the expulsion was delayed as his lawyers contested the case. While the Supreme Court rejected his appeal earlier this month.
