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Geneva (AFP) – On Monday, the United Nations condemned Israel’s expulsion of French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Al-Hamouri after he had been administratively detained since March with no formal charges against him, describing the measure as a “war crime”.
“International humanitarian law prohibits the expulsion of protected persons from occupied territory and expressly prohibits the coercion of such persons to swear allegiance to the occupying power,” said Jeremy Lawrence, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“The expulsion of a protected person from occupied territory is a serious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and constitutes a war crime,” he added in a statement sent to the media.
Salah Al-Hamouri was deported to France on Sunday.
Hammouri, 37, was sentenced in March to three months of administrative detention, a controversial measure that allows Israel to detain suspects without formal charges.
Lawrence added that the UN Human Rights Office “condemns the deportation” of Hammouri by Israel to France and “we are deeply concerned by the terrifying message this sends to human rights workers in the occupied Palestinian territory.” .
He felt that his expulsion “highlighted the fragile situation of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, where the occupying power has granted them revocable residency status under Israeli law”, noting that “this indicates a serious deterioration of the situation of Palestinian human rights defenders.”
The High Commissioner has called on Israel to cancel the expulsion order.
Israel suspected Hammouri of having links – which it denies – with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist faction considered “terrorist” by the Jewish state and the European Union. He was told in late November that he would be deported in December in France.
However, his expulsion was postponed after hearings in the military court, where his lawyers challenged the expulsion order and the cancellation of his resident status in East Jerusalem.
Salah al-Hamouri was born in this part of the city occupied and annexed by the Jewish state, he does not have Israeli citizenship, but has a residence permit revoked by the Israeli authorities in a procedure he opposes.
In early December, Israeli authorities confirmed the revocation of his residency, paving the way for his deportation, although a new hearing was scheduled for January 1.
© 2022 AFP
