Israeli Authorities Announce the Deportation of Human Right Defender Salah Hammouri

Annachiara Canetta

Middle East and Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

Salah Hammouri, a Franco-Palestinian human rights defender who has been administratively detained in an Israeli prison since March, has been notified of the decision to revoke his Jerusalem residency. [1] On November 29th, his appeal against the revocation of his residency was rejected by Israel’s Supreme Court, and he was informed of his imminent deportation, initially set for December 4th and later postponed. 

Hammouri has been imprisoned without charge or trial for the past nine months, on the basis of “secret information”. [2] His detention orders were renewed several times: the most recent was supposed  to end on December 4th. However, due to the confirmation of the revocation of Hammouri’s residency and the notification of expulsion, the detention is once again prolonged. On December 6th, the Court decided to postpone the final decision to January 1st. [3] In the meantime, Hammouri will continue to be detained. 

According to Amnesty International, the deportation of the Palestinian lawyer could amount to a war crime, as it would be in breach of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, according to which “Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.” [4] However, residency revocation (and consequent forcible transfer) of East Jerusalem residents is a common practice carried out by Israeli authorities, with 14,643 revocations since 1967. [5]

Sources and further reading:

[1] Israeli court postpones decision to deport Palestinian-French human rights defender Salah Hammouri. (2022, December 4). WAFA Agency. https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/132181 

[2] Al-Haq. (2022, May 16). Civil Society Organizations support the submission by HRD Salah Hammouri urging the ICC to Investigate Israel’s Ongoing War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in Jerusalem. https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/20015.html 

[3]  Deportation hearing of Palestinian French human rights defender postponed until January 1. (2022, December 6). WAFA Agency. https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/132239

[4] Geneva Convention Relative To The Protection Of Civilian Persons In Time Of War, Art. 49, §1. (1949). https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.33_GC-IV-EN.pdf 

[5] B’Tselem. (n.d.). Statistics on Revocation of Residency in East Jerusalem. https://www.btselem.org/jerusalem/revocation_statistics