Israel/OPT: Judicial harassment against Mr. Salah Hamouri

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the judicial harassment against Mr. Salah Hamouri, a Franco-Palestinian lawyer who works with Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer)[1] in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

According to the information received, on September 3, 2020, Mr. Salah Hamouri was summoned to the Moskobiyeh interrogation centre in Jerusalem, where he was given a letter from Mr. Aryé Deri, Israeli Minister of the Interior, informing him of his intention to withdraw Mr. Hamouri’s permanent residence card in Jerusalem. In his letter, the Minister of the Interior justifies this withdrawal by claiming that Mr. Hamouri is still implementing hostile activities against the state of Israel. If this measure was implemented, it would mean that Mr. Salah Hamouri, who was born and has lived in Jerusalem since 1985, would be permanently expelled from his country of origin without being able to return.

This decision is based on article 11 a) of the Entry into Israel Law of 1952, which allows Israeli authorities to decide whether or not Palestinians of Jerusalem can live in their homeland. This law violates international humanitarian law, in particular article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war of August 12, 1949, which states that “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”.

The Observatory recalls that Mr. Salah Hamouri has been harassed for years and was arbitrarily detained several times by Israeli’s authorities because of his peaceful human rights activities (see background information).

The Observatory expresses its utmost concern over the threat of expulsion of Mr. Salah Hamouri from his hometown of Jerusalem as it seems to be only aimed at punishing him for the exercise of his legitimate human rights activities.

The Observatory calls on the Israeli’s authorities to refrain from withdrawing Mr. Salah Hamouri’s permanent residence card and to put an end to all forms of harassment, including at the judicial level, against him and all other human rights defenders in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Background information:

On March 13, 2005, Mr. Salah Hamouri was arrested by the Israeli military at Qalqiliya checkpoint and sentenced to seven years in prison for his alleged involvement in a plot to assassinate Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of the religious and ultra-orthodox party Shas, and former Chief Rabbi of Israel. Mr. Salah Hamouri was to be released on March 13, 2012, but instead, was set free on December 18, 2011, as part of the Wafa Al Ahrar prisoner exchange deal[2] .

Subsequent to his re-arrest on August 23, 2017, on August 29, 2017, the Jerusalem Magistrate Court ordered his conditional release and his placement under house arrest in Al-Reineh for 20 days. The Court also banned Mr. Salah Hamouri from entering Jerusalem, from travelling outside the country for three months and ordered a 10,000 NIS (approx. 2642 Euros) bail.

However, when Mr. Salah Hamouri’s family went to pay the bail, they were told he would not be released and had received a six-month administrative detention order, which had been issued on August 23, 2017 by the Minister of Defence without being notified to Mr. Salah Hamouri.

On September 5, 2017, the Jerusalem District Court reinstated a sentence against Mr. Salah Hamouri originally issued in 2005 and ordered him to serve the remaining three-month sentence. This represents the time that was left for Mr. Salah Hamouri to serve prior to his release as part of the Wafa Al Ahrar exchange deal. A representative from the French Consulate in Jerusalem and Mr. Salah Hamouri’s father were prevented from entering the courtroom.

On September 7, 2017, Mr. Hamouri was transferred from al-Mascobiyeh (The Russian Compound) interrogation facility in Jerusalem to Ketziot (al-Naqab) prison’s section III.

On September 13, 2017, the Israeli Supreme Court annulled the Jerusalem District Court decision from September 5, 2017.

On September 17, 2017, Jerusalem District Court confirmed a six-month administrative detention[3] against Mr. Salah Hamouri. Mr Hamouri was reportedly suspected by Israeli authorities of being a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and a threat to national security in Jerusalem and surrounding areas in the West Bank.

On September 30, 2018, Mr. Salah Hamouri was released after spending 13 months in detention. The judge also banned Mr. Hamouri from celebrating his release. The exact motives and charges against Mr. Salah Hamouri have so far remained confidential, as it is generally the case for Palestinians subjected to administrative detention and Israeli military and civil courts. Mr. Hamouri regained his family home in Al-Ram, East Jerusalem.

On June 30, 2020 around 10 a.m., Mr. Salah Hamouri was arrested again by the Israeli authorities at a medical centre in Jerusalem where he was going to be tested for coronavirus before leaving for France where his wife and son live. He was then taken to the Moskobiyeh interrogation centre in Jerusalem, without being told the reasons for his arrest.

On July 1, 2020, a judge at the Israeli Court of First Instance ordered the extension of his detention until July 7, 2020, for the purposes of further interrogations. During these interrogations, the authorities mainly questioned him about his relationships and tried to force him to leave the country permanently. Addameer’s lawyer filed an appeal against the extension of M. Salah Hamouri’s detention, which was rejected during the appeal session of July 5, 2020.

On July 7, 2020, the Israeli Court of First Instance in Jerusalem decided to release Mr. Salah Hamouri under three conditions. First, Mr. Hamouri had to pay a bail of 2,000 shekels (approximately 770 Euros) in addition to a personal financial guarantee and another third party guarantee of 1,000 shekels each (approximately 256 Euros). Second, Mr. Hamouri was given a list of persons he is prohibited from contacting for three months. Third, he must make himself available for any court summons.

Additionally, Mr. Salah Hamouri’s wife, Ms. Elsa Lefort, a French national, and their son, have been banned by Israeli authorities from entering Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 2016.