Organizations Call for Release of Palestinian Human Rights Defender Salah Hammouri

08-09-2022

Annachiara Canetta

Middle East and Human Rights Researcher 

Global Human Rights Defence 

Around 30 organizations have called for the release of Salah Hammouri, a Palestinian human rights defender who has been administratively detained since March 2022 . The Joint Statement [1] came a few days before the lawyer’s administrative detention was supposed to come to an end, on September 5th. However, Israeli authorities renewed the arrest: Hammouri has been in custody without charge or trial since March 7th 2022, on the basis of “secret information” [2]. This means that neither the detainee nor his lawyers are allowed to access the evidence determining his arrest. 

Mr. Hammouri, a 37-year-old resident of Jerusalem, has spent a total of nine years in Israeli prisons due to six different arrests. He was sentenced to seven years in prison after being charged of planning  the murder of the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Ovadia Yosef: despite lack of evidence, he accepted a plea bargain after three years of detention without trial. [3] Israeli authorities have been targeting the Palestinian lawyer through arbitrary arrests, fines, and travel bans against him and his family (with his wife, Elsa Lefort, being banned from entering Israel and deported to her home country, France) [4]. Since October 2021, Hammouri’s permanent residency has been revoked by Israeli authorities due to a  “break of allegiance” to the state of Israel. This measure is considered illegal under international law: it is an act of forcible transfer, in breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention. [5] Hammouri has been targeted by Israel due to his work for Addamer -  Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, which is one of the 6 organizations declared ‘unlawful associations’ and ‘terrorist organizations’ by the Israeli military in 2021. [6]

The practice of administrative detention has been in use in the Occupied Palestinian Territories since 1967. It allows the incarceration of people without charge or trial, and it is often used against political opponents; it is rarely used against Jewish citizens of Israel. [7] The routine use of administrative detention is in violation of international law:  Article 78 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the use of this measure unless “imperative reasons of security” occur [8], while article 76 states that protected people “shall be detained in the occupied country”, while Palestinian administrative detainees are deported to Israeli prisons. [9]

Notes:

[1] Law for Palestine, et al. (2022, August 31). Israel/Palestine: The harassment against human rights lawyer Salah Hammouri must stop. https://www.fidh.org/en/region/north-africa-middle-east/israel-palestine/israel-palestine-the-harassment-against-human-rights-lawyer-salah 

[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] Amnesty International. (2022). Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians. Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/ 

[4] Addamer. (2022, March 7). Israeli Occupation Forces Arrest Human Rights Defender And Addameer Lawyer Salah Hammouri. https://www.addameer.org/news/4716 

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

[6] AlJazeera. (2021, October 22). Outcry as Israel labels Palestinian rights groups ‘terrorists’. 

 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/22/israel-palestinian-human-rights-groups-terrorism 

[7] Amnesty International. (2022). Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians. Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/ 

[8] Geneva Convention Relative To The Protection Of Civilian Persons In Time Of War, Art. 78. (1949). https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.33_GC-IV-EN.pdf 

[9] Addamer. Stop Administrative Detention Campaign. http://www.addameer.org/Campaign/stop-administrative-detention