Occupied East Jerusalem – Israel has renewed the detention of Palestinian-French human rights lawyer Salah Hammouri, who has been held with out trial since March and has not been charged.
Authorities introduced the renewal of Hammouri’s administrative detention for one more three months on Sunday, at some point earlier than his anticipated launch. His present detention order will now expire on December 4.
In a press assertion, the #JusticeforSalah marketing campaign referred to as for Hammouri’s launch and condemned the choice. “Solely hours from his anticipated launch from Hadarim jail – the Israeli occupation renewed the executive detention of Salah”.
“Neither Salah nor his authorized illustration had been knowledgeable in regards to the renewal determination leaving Salah, his household and family members in a state of steady nervousness and psychological misery,” the assertion added.
Hammouri is a 37-year-old father of two, a Palestinian rights defender and lawyer from Jerusalem, who has been held in Israeli administrative detention since March 7. His detention order was renewed in June for 3 months, making Sunday the second renewal.
Administrative detention is an Israeli coverage that enables the imprisonment of Palestinians with out trial or cost primarily based on “secret proof”, which neither the detainee nor his lawyer can view, for an indefinite time frame. At the very least 730 Palestinians are at present held underneath such orders.
Israel says the coverage is important for safety causes and in order that intelligence will not be divulged.
A area researcher with the Ramallah-based Addameer prisoners’ rights group, Hammouri’s case has made international headlines with worldwide and native rights teams calling for his launch.
Addameer, which has continued to function regardless of Israeli authorities ordering it to close down, together with six different Palestinian civil society teams in August, said the renewal of Hammouri’s detention was “a part of the Israeli occupation’s systematic & ongoing harassment marketing campaign to suppress Palestinian HRDs [human rights defenders] and civil society”.
Hammouri’s case acquired additional consideration when it was revealed in November 2021 that his telephone was hacked by the Israeli surveillance agency NSO Group, which he sued in April.
Residency revoked and household deported
Hammouri has been imprisoned a number of occasions beforehand by Israel, together with a seven-year sentence between 2005 and 2011, and 13 months in administrative detention in 2017.
In 2016, he was forcibly separated from his French spouse, Elsa Lefort.
Lefort was detained for 3 days whereas she was six months pregnant after arriving at Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv to go to her husband.
She was deported again to France and acquired a 10-year ban regardless of having a sound year-long multiple-entry work visa.
Lefort was instructed by authorities on the airport that she constituted “a risk to the safety of the state of Israel”, she instructed Al Jazeera.
The couple now has a six-year-old son and a 16-month-old daughter, who stay in France.
“It has been actually laborious for our household. Since I used to be deported from Palestine, we’ve solely seen one another two to a few weeks annually. The children are rising up with out their father,” Lefort instructed Al Jazeera.
“It’s laborious for us as adults, however we all know and perceive the political context, however for the youngsters – even when we attempt to clarify it to them, they can’t comprehend life underneath occupation, they’re simply youngsters – they only wish to stay with their father and their mom,” she added.
“The final time Salah got here to France it was for the start of our daughter. She was 11 days when he noticed her, and now she is 16 months – she by no means noticed her father once more.”
Whereas he was initially being held at Israel’s Ofer jail close to Ramallah, Hammouri was transferred in July to Hadarim maximum-security jail after he directed an open letter to French president Emmanuel Macron.
Milena Ansari, worldwide advocacy officer at Addameer, instructed Al Jazeera that Israel treats Hammouri as a “high-security risk”.
“He’s now thought-about a ‘high-security’ prisoner. His legs and arms are at all times shackled every time he leaves his room, and the detainees in that jail obtain solely about one to 2 hours exterior within the yard,” stated Ansari.
“There isn’t a cost towards Salah and but they’re treating him as a maximum-security risk,” she added.
In October 2021, the Israeli ministry of inside revoked Hammouri’s Jerusalem residency allow, regardless of him being born within the metropolis and dwelling there his complete life, citing a “breach of allegiance” to the Israeli state.
The choice to revoke his residency is predicated on “imprecise and broad allegations of “terroristic actions”, primarily based on alleged “secret data” that’s withheld by the state, in accordance with Addameer.
The revocation of Hammouri’s Jerusalem residency standing means that he’s vulnerable to forcible deportation at any time, that he can’t legally be current in his metropolis of start and that his nationwide insurance coverage, together with medical health insurance, has been lower off.
A remaining listening to for his residency case is about to be held in February 2023 on the Israeli Supreme Courtroom.
Ansari stated Addameer is hoping will probably be in a position to reinstate Hammouri’s residency as it could set a really extensive, imprecise and harmful precedent for Israel’s revocation of Palestinian Jerusalem residency IDs going ahead.
Even when he’s launched from jail, says Lefort, their household wrestle will proceed.
“We must struggle to allow him to remain in Palestine. That is the following step,” stated Lefort.
In 2005, Hammouri was arrested and provided a deal to serve jail time or be deported to France for 10 years. He selected to stay and serve seven years in jail.
“They wish to push him to go away,” his spouse stated.
“When your nation is underneath occupation and you’re struggling for the liberation of your land, you can not go away this land. You do not need to be removed from your loved ones both, however this isn’t a selection somebody ought to need to make.”