Under the slogan, “From the river to the sea to the world,” Al Falasteniyeh is an independent English and Arabic language media network with in-country Palestinian journalists collaborating with staff around the globe to produce creative and journalistic content guided by our values.
Al Falasteniyeh works to inform the world of the vast plurality of the Palestinian and Arab people, share the richness of their history, and highlight the present realities of their resistance and struggle for freedom.
Al Falasteniyeh’s website, with more stories and updates, is available at afmn.org. The media network is also launching a campaign to fund the opening of an office in Gaza, providing sustainable support for Palestinian journalists while presenting live from Palestine to the world.
The Israeli occupation regime is continuing the persecution of French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri, ordering him back to administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial — at two hearings conducted today, 6 December 2022, where the Israeli interior minister’s order to forcibly deport him to France was considered.
The Committee to Support Salah Hamouri reported that Salah and his lawyers were present at both hearings today and presented their arguments; at this time, the occupation court did not rule on the deportation case. The French consul to Tel Aviv also attended the hearing on the forced deportation order. The next hearing focused on the order to strip his Jerusalem ID — despite the fact that he is an indigenous Palestinian born, raised and living in Jerusalem. Another hearing was ordered for 1 January 2023 on the order to revoke his residency.
Until that time, Salah was ordered once again to administrative detention and returned to Hadarim prison, classified by the Israeli occupation authorities as a “high security detainee” — that is, a Palestinian political prisoner. Throughout the hearings, Salah was handcuffed at the hands and the feet, with both sets of cuffs joined together by a metal chain.
Hamouri is now once again one of approximately 820 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, out of 4,750 total Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli occupation jails. Arbitrary administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable and based on a “secret file” denied to both prisoners and their lawyers, and Palestinians are routinely jailed for years at a time under such orders.
This is only the latest incident in the ongoing persecution of Hamouri, a French-Palestinian lawyer who has been repeatedly targeted for administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. He has been jailed arbitrarily since March 2022 and has been fighting the attempt to strip him of his residency rights and deport him from his native Jerusalem since 2021 on the basis of “breach of allegiance” to the colonial occupation, an act constituting a war crime. His wife and children are barred from entering Palestine, forcing him to live apart from his family. He was one of six Palestinian human rights defenders who were proven to be surveilled through the infamous “Pegasus” spyware sold by the NSO group. He was imprisoned for 7 years until his release in 2011, in a case that became well-known, especially in France, as an example of the illegitimacy and injustice of the Israeli system of incarceration.
As France attempts to criminalize the boycott of Israel and ban organizations working for justice in Palestine, such as the Collectif Palestine Vaincra (a member organization of the Samidoun Network), it once again shows its complicity with Israeli apartheid by its near total inaction to uphold the rights of Salah Hamouri despite the positive positions taken by the mobilization of hundreds of associations, parliamentarians and local elected officials. French officials have expressed that Salah should be able to live free with his family in Jerusalem, but France must impose real pressure to defend its citizen’s rights — including imposing sanctions on the Israeli regime, cutting off the arms trade and, practically and immediately, refusing to accept a deportation flight for Salah Hamouri.
Indeed, the spokesperson of French diplomacy faced serious questions from journalists at a press briefing on 5 December, who asked. “What are you doing concretely to prevent Israel from expelling Salah Hamouri, since words are not enough and the intervention of the President of the Republic with the former Prime Minister, Yaïr Lapid, obviously had no effect? Do you envisage sanctions against Israel? Are you asking for the suspension of the cooperation agreement between Israel and the European Union as provided for in the texts when human rights are not respected, as is clearly the case with Salah Hamouri? Or, on the contrary, are you going, once again, to let Israel mock international law and, in this case, France?”
The spokesperson responded that “We made our position clear to the Israeli authorities: Salah Hamouri should not be expelled. He must be able to exercise all his rights and lead a normal life in Jerusalem, his city of birth and residence. Steps were taken very recently with the Israeli government to recall our opposition to the expulsion of our compatriot. Our mobilization continues, as does our assistance for consular protection.”
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces the attempt to strip Salah Hamouri of his Jerusalemite identity and his Palestinian presence in the land of Palestine. We demand an end to the ongoing imprisonment of Salah Hamouri, the use of administrative detention to target Palestinian leaders and human rights defenders, and the ongoing Israeli ethnic cleansing project in Jerusalem targeting the Palestinian people and identity of the city, the capital of Palestine. We urge all supporters of Palestine to take action to demand the liberation of Salah Hamouri and every Palestinian prisoner jailed in the occupation prisons.
Detained French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri is threatened with deportation from his homeland, occupied Palestine, at any moment by Israeli occupation regime officials. While his deportation was originally announced for 4 December, he was then ordered held for further hearings on 6 December 2022. However, rather than legally delaying his deportation, he was ordered transferred from the Hadarim prison, where Palestinian political prisoners (labeled “security detainees”) are held, to pre-deportation detention at 2:30 am on Tuesday, 6 December.
Salah Hamouri, a Palestinian human rights defender and lawyer working for the freedom of political prisoners, has been jailed without charge or trial since March 2022 and his arbitrary administrative detention repeatedly renewed.
On Monday, 5 December, the Justice for Salah campaign reported that Hamouri was taken to another hearing at Givon prison in al-Ramleh, where he was once again denied access to his lawyers or legal representation, as was the case at the earlier hearing on 1 December, following Israeli interior minister Ayelet Shaked’s order for his deportation. The campaign reported that the French consul in Tel Aviv was able to speak only briefly to Salah.
Two hearings have been scheduled in the occupation courts on 6 December: the first at 11:00 am and the second at 1:30 pm, with the first hearing concerning the order of deportation imposed on him and the second regarding his detention prior to deportation. “As of today, Salah is held in detention as a deportee,” the campaign noted. His family has been denied access to both hearings, but he is expected to have access to his legal counsel as well as the French consul. The campaign affirmed that Salah Hamouri rejects any deportation from Palestine and all of the illegitimate measures and procedures against him by the occupation regime.
Since June 2021, the human rights defender has been fighting against the attempt by the Israeli authorities to forcibly deport him by depriving him of his identity and residence in Jerusalem, the city in which he was born and where he lives. The fascist interior minister Ayelet Shaked signed the order to revoke his Jerusalem identity and forcibly expel him in 2021 — and he was arrested and thrown in administrative detention only days after publishing a major international essay fighting back against the attempt to expel him from his homeland and home city. She announced on 1 December that she had signed an order revoking his residency and ordering his deportation, which Salah Hamouri completely rejects.
This attack on Salah Hamouri is an integral part of the policy of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Zionist colonial forces in the Palestinian capital, Jerusalem. Indeed, Israel has withdrawn residence permits from more than 14,600 Palestinians since 1967, which constitutes a war crime.
As France attempts to criminalize the boycott of Israel and ban organizations working for justice in Palestine, such as the Collectif Palestine Vaincra (a member organization of the Samidoun Network), it once again shows its complicity with Israeli apartheid by its near total inaction to uphold the rights of Salah Hamouri despite the positive positions taken by the mobilization of hundreds of associations, parliamentarians and local elected officials. French officials have expressed that Salah should be able to live free with his family in Jerusalem, but France must impose real pressure to defend its citizen’s rights — including imposing sanctions on the Israeli regime, cutting off the arms trade and, practically and immediately, refusing to accept a deportation flight for Salah Hamouri.
Denise Hamouri wrote, “Salah must not be deported, he must be able to stay in Jerusalem with his family as he wishes, this must be a strong demand on your part, Salah is French, I am French, my children are French, his wife and children are French, it is your responsibility Mr President. Moreover, the withdrawal of Salah’s residency card and his deportation from Jerusalem are very serious facts and an open door to other similar actions on other Palestinians in the city with the long-term objective of emptying Jerusalem of its Arab inhabitants. A hearing is to be held on Tuesday to finalize the terms of his expulsion, so we have a few days left and a little hope, we ask you to act as firmly as possible Mr. President.”
Elsa Lefort wrote, “20 years that France does not do much, not enough to defend its citizen, also Palestinian. If Salah were expelled from his native land, it would be a pain for him and for all those who love him and who know how much Salah and Jerusalem are one. That he walked each of the alleys of the old city, that a journey with him in Jerusalem is punctuated by dozens of greetings, exchanges and smiles. Salah is a son of Jerusalem, Jerusalem will never leave Salah, that’s for sure. If he were to be forcibly expelled, Israel would be committing a war crime. One more. Emmanuel Macron , France should be proud to have among its children a man who stands up against the occupation, despite the blows, despite the suffering, he refuses to bend. France must not remain silent in the face of this war crime which affects one of its own. Mr. President, you are the only one who can obtain justice and freedom for Salah Hamouri….Mr. President, why have you never publicly mentioned Salah’s name? Doesn’t he deserve to be defended with as much vigor as the other French people?”
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces the attempt to strip Salah Hamouri of his Jerusalemite identity and his Palestinian presence in the land of Palestine. We demand an end to the ongoing imprisonment of Salah Hamouri, the use of administrative detention to target Palestinian leaders and human rights defenders, and the ongoing Israeli ethnic cleansing project in Jerusalem targeting the Palestinian people and identity of the city, the capital of Palestine. We urge all supporters of Palestine to take action to demand the liberation of Salah Hamouri and every Palestinian prisoner jailed in the occupation prisons.
Adal and Ahmad Musa, two Palestinian prisoners and brothers jailed without charge or trial by the Israeli occupation regime, have relaunched their hunger strike on 5 December 2022 after both of their detention orders were renewed, despite both brothers concluding agreements for their release in order to end their prior hunger strikes. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges action and solidarity to demand the immediate release of the Musa brothers and all Palestinian prisoners.
The Musa brothers launched their original hunger strike on 6August 2022, immediately after they were seized by Israeli occupation soldiers from their homes in Al-Khader, near Bethlehem in occupied Palestine. Ahmad Musa, 44, and Adal Musa, 34, were ordered to administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial — shortly thereafter, with Ahmad ordered to 4 months in administrative detention and Adal ordered detained for 3 months.
Both were previously detained; in 2019, Ahmad Musa launched a hunger strike for 29 days against his administrative detention without charge or trial. Adal has previously spent 7 years in occupation prisons, including 5 years in one sentence. Ahmad is married and the father of seven children, while Adal is also married and a father of two.
Ahmad Musa, who suffers from a heart condition, suspended his hunger strike after 33 days, on 8 September 2022, with an agreement for his release on 6 December 2022. Four days later, Adal Musa suspended his hunger strike after 37 days, with an agreement for his release on 6 November 2022. Both were to be released upon the expiration of their original administrative detention orders; Adal Musa’s detention order was renewed in November, and today, Ahmad and his family were informed that his detention would also be renewed, sparking the brothers to begin their hunger strike once more.
Hanadi Musa, Ahmad’s wife, told Muhja al-Quds that both brothers’ detention was extended for an additional four months. “We cannot leave them alone to confront this, and all must join efforts to stop this latest crime,” she said.
Sheikh Khader Adnan denounced the actions of the Israeli occupation, which claimed that there are now “confessions against” the two brothers, noting that this is a “failed attempt to cover up their blatant repudiation of the written agreement with the prisoners and their lawyers….what has happened with brother Ahmad Musa is a dangerous precedent..their return to the strike is a demand for immediate freedom,” he said.
This is only the latest example of the Israeli occupation regime suddenly repudiating agreements for the release of Palestinian hunger strikers. In other recent cases of what appears to be a policy targeting hunger strikes, Raed Rayan‘s administrative detention was renewed, while Khalil Awawdeh was accused of attempting to smuggle a mobile phone from the hospital where he was held after ending his own lengthy hunger strike. Awawdeh is currently detained on these allegations.
What Is Administrative Detention?
Administrative detention was first used in Palestine by the British colonial mandate and then adopted by the Zionist regime; it is now used routinely to target Palestinians, especially community leaders, activists, and influential people in their towns, camps and villages.
There are currently approximately 820 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, out of 4,750 Palestinian political prisoners.
Administrative detention orders are issued by the military and approved by military courts on the basis of “secret evidence”, denied to both Palestinian detainees and their attorneys. Issued for up to six months at a time, they are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians — including minor children — can spend years jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention. Hundreds of Palestinians have gone on hunger strike to win their liberation from this form of arbitrary detention, which is not only illegal under international law but a form of psychological torture and collective punishment targeting Palestinian families and communities, as detainees are unable to predict or plan for their release.
Download these distributable flyers and posters to highlight the case of Ahmad and Adal Musa and the struggle to free Palestinian prisoners:
1. Mobilize actions, demonstrations and creative interventions – Take to the streets to defend the Palestinian people and their resistance! There is a vast depth of support for the Palestinian people everywhere around the world, including inside the imperialist powers. It is our responsibility to act and make it impossible to continue their support for the crimes against the Palestinian people.
2. Build the boycott of Israel – This is a critical moment to escalate the campaign to isolate the Israeli regime at all levels, including through boycott campaigns that target the occupation’s economic exploitation of the Palestinian land, people and resources as well as those international corporations, like HP and G4S, that profit from the ongoing colonization of Palestine.
Tuesday, December 6 7 p.m. EST DARC, formerly known as the SAW Gallery 67 Nicholas St, Ottawa
OTTAWA: Come join Samidoun Ottawa and the Palestinian Youth Movement Ottawa as we screen the documentary film “Resistance, Why?” (1970) directed by Christian Ghazi.
“Resistance, Why” is one of the most recent restorations of Beirut-based non-profit @nadi_lekolnas, who found an old ruined copy of the film in Sweden and recovered it.
In the film, a number of Arab political figures, especially Palestinians residing in Lebanon, share their vision of the Palestinian revolution, tracing its history back to the early 20th century. These testimonies describe the numerous strikes and popular protests that took place in Palestine under the Ottoman occupation, followed by the British colonization and the establishment of the Zionist entity in 1948. They enumerate the objectives of the struggle, emphasizing the necessity for a free and democratic Palestine, defended through armed or non-armed struggle by all its citizens, men and women of various affiliations.
Some of the figures interviewed in this film include Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm, Nabil Shaath, and Ghassan Kanafani. In fact, the film includes exclusive footage of Ghassan Kanafani apart from his famous interview.
The screening will take place at the @digitalartsresourcecentre (DARC, formerly known as the SAW Gallery) on Tuesday, December 6 at 7 p.m. EST and will be followed with a Q&A session.
Tickets are $5 each (though you may pay what you can) and can be purchased at the door in cash or via e-transfer. All proceeds will go to sponsoring the event.
The International Association of Democratic Lawyers, an international alliance of lawyers and legal organizations accredited to ECOSOC and UNESCO, convened its Council meeting virtually on 3-4 December 2022, considering a number of important issues.
The IADL, which brings together progressive lawyers and legal organizations from all continents, addressed a wide variety of global topics during the Council meeting, including political prisoners in Turkey, United Nations advocacy, the Ukraine situation, developments in Brazil, international peace conferences, and the upcoming International Peoples’ Tribunal on US Imperialism: Sanctions, Blockades and Coercive Economic Measures. It considered and adopted several resolutions related to Palestine and the struggle of Palestinian prisoners for justice and liberation.
One resolution adopted by the IADL calls for the immediate release of French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri to his home in Jerusalem, and urges the French government to take meaningful action to block the stripping of his Jerusalem residency and threatened deportation, including refusing to accept any deportation flight.
The second IADL resolution on Palestine endorses the campaign to Free the Holy Land Five, highlighting the cases of Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu Baker and Mufid Abdulqader as an outrageous violation of civil and human rights in the United States.
Finally, the IADL also endorsed the Kick Out Apartheid campaign and a letter by lawyers urging FIFA to take action against Israeli apartheid in football by excluding the Israel Football Association.
Since IADL’s founding in 1946 in Paris, IADL members have participated in the struggles that have made the violation of human rights of groups and individuals and threats to international peace and security, legal issues under international law. From its inception, IADL members throughout the globe have protested racism, colonialism, and economic and political injustice wherever they interfere with legal and human rights, often at the cost of these jurists’ personal safety and economic well being. IADL members in the United States, Canada, France, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Italy, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, Austria, the Philippines, Japan, Spain, Portugal, Togo, South Africa, Bangladesh and India, among others, participated in the Council convening.
On Thursday December 1 in Paris, a huge banner was unfurled over a busy street, calling for the immediate release of Salah Hamouri, the French-Palestinian lawyer imprisoned without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention regime since 7 March 2022. The banner was widely seen by many passers-by, both pedestrians and drivers at the Porte de Vincennes. Numerous motorists honked their horns in support of Hamouri, who is known in France as a symbol of the struggle for justice in Palestine.
Coordinated by Samidoun Paris Banlieue with the support of ACTA and the Collective Boycott Apartheid Israel Paris Banlieue, this action was organized the day after the announcement by the Israeli occupation authorities to forcibly deport Salah Hamouri to France on 4 December, the date on which his administrative detention is due to end.
Since June 2021, the human rights defender has been fighting against the attempt by the Israeli authorities to forcibly deport him by depriving him of his identity and residence in Jerusalem, the city in which he was born and where he lives. The fascist interior minister Ayelet Shaked signed the order to revoke his Jerusalem identity and forcibly expel him in 2021 — and he was arrested and thrown in administrative detention only days after publishing a major international essay fighting back against the attempt to expel him from his homeland and home city. She announced on 1 December that she had signed an order revoking his residency and ordering his deportation, which Salah Hamouri completely rejects.
This attack on Salah Hamouri is an integral part of the policy of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Zionist colonial forces in the Palestinian capital, Jerusalem. Indeed, Israel has withdrawn residence permits from more than 14,600 Palestinians since 1967, which constitutes a war crime.
⚠️🔴La ministre de l’intérieur israélienne Ayalet Shaket a fait savoir dans la presse israélienne qu’elle avait signé la révocation de la carte de résident de Jérusalem de Salah Hamouri ainsi que son ordre d’expulsion. #LiberezSalah@EmmanuelMacron agissez ! pic.twitter.com/ogOJgroxNr
As France attempts to criminalize the boycott of Israel and ban organizations working for justice in Palestine, such as the Collectif Palestine Vaincra (a member organization of the Samidoun Network), it once again shows its complicity with Israeli apartheid by its near total inaction to uphold the rights of Salah Hamouri despite the positive positions taken by the mobilization of hundreds of associations, parliamentarians and local elected officials. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network calls for more solidarity initiatives in France and around the world to allow Salah Hamouri to live free in Palestine with his family!
Samah Idriss’ memory at the March for Return and Liberation, Brussels
On the first anniversary of the passing of renowned Arab revolutionary writer and intellectual Samah Idriss on 25 November 2021, political, cultural and social events were organized around the world to commemorate his legacy of struggle and vow to follow in the path of his words: ” If we abandon Palestine, we abandon ourselves.”
Samah Idriss, writer, translator and publisher, was the editor-in-chief of Al-Adab magazine and co-founder of the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon, he was a leading voice for the Arab boycott movement, a co-founder of the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, and a writer, thinker and revolutionary who inspired many on the road to liberation.
Palestinian prisoners issued a statement upon his passing, which has continued to inspire our activities: “Samah, we know that you have not left the mountain. You are like a mountain in your stances, and your steps are engraved in the path of this long journey.You are our beloved comrade, a companion on the hard path of struggle, a friend on the long road.Your body has left us, but your spirit will remain an inspiration to us.Your words and your positions are a beacon that we raise, debate and discuss as we walk. We will keep walking, comrade, until we get there.”
In Toulouse, France, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra included the commemoration of Samah Idriss in its Palestine Stand on #PalestineDay, 29 November, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people. The Collectif posted a large sign on the streets of Toulouse in his honor, as well as taking photos of solidarity with posters honoring him.
In Madrid, Spain, Samidoun Spain joined with the Masar Badil, Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization, and Al-Yudur Palestinian Youth Organization for an event on Sunday, 27 November against the partition of Palestine.
The event included a screening of “Daughters of Nakba,” a film about Palestinian women’s struggle, as well as a presentation and discussion about the imposition of the partition of Palestine in 1947 and the Oslo accords in 1993, exposing Zionist colonialism and racism. The event also included a discussion of the life and work of Samah Idriss and his activities to build the boycott movement.
In Vancouver, Canada, Samidoun Vancouver organized a public educational event on 21 November about next steps for the Palestine movement, particularly following the City Council’s adoption of the notorious, anti-Palestinian IHRA “definition of anti-Semitism.”
Hanna Kawas of the Canada Palestine Association and Sid Shniad of Independent Jewish Voices spoke about the ongoing struggle against the IHRA, while Hanan Dudin gave a reportback from the Brussels March for Return and Liberation, and Khaled Barakat of the Masar Badil spoke about the life of Samah Idriss and his own memories of his contributions to the struggle.
On December 2, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill, the Arab Left Forum, the Palestinian Youth Movement and the Commemoration Committee for Samah Idriss will hold a film screening and a discussion with McGill professor Malik Abisaab in Montreal, Quebec, as part of the commemorative activities.
The Egyptian Socialist Party organized a commemorative event at its headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, honoring Samah Idriss as well as Amin Iskander and Sayed al-Ghadban, two Egyptian intellectuals and journalists committed to the Palestinian and Arab cause. Palestinian and Egyptian speakers discussed the importance of the movement to confront normalization on the Arab level as well as the current situation of the Palestinian cause and what can be done to build greater support and involvement in the Palestinian cause.
In Lebanon, family members, comrades and activists organized a number of events to honor Samah’s memory. The Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon organized a memorial event that also included cultural performances by Palestinian children and youth.
In addition, the Campaign released a report about its activities since the passing of Samah Idriss, as well as an update to its boycott guide, making clear that the boycott and anti-normalization movement continues to be highly active in Lebanon in defense of the Palestinian people and Palestinian cause.
The Center for Arab Unity Studies organized a virtual forum on Arab intellectuals and the revolutionary struggle, while the Masar Badil organized an internal symposium focused on implementing Samah Idriss’ vision for cultural struggle as part of the liberation project.
In Shatila refugee camp, the Children and Youth Center organized an event and discussion on the life and work of Samah Idriss, including his writings for children.
Al-Adab magazine, of which he served as editor-in-chief, produced a new issue specifically dedicated to his memory and including many of his writings as well as those by his comrades and colleagues.
Samah Idriss was an Arab fighter and a true internationalist, one who lived his life dedicated to the cause of Palestine. We will continue to honor his life and struggle through organizing, education, mobilization and work for Palestinian and Arab liberation.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is joining with Just Peace Advocates, the Canada Palestine Association, Palestinian and Jewish Unity and Palestine House to launch a letter-writing campaign targeting Canadian officials following the statement of Zionist officials on 30 November that they intend to forcibly deport imprisoned Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri to France this coming Sunday and strip him of his Jerusalem residency. This outrage must be confronted globally, but Western governments — including Canada’s — are silent on this as they are on the continuing assault on the Palestinian people.
Take one minute to write to Foreign Minister Joly and Canada’s Head of Mission in Ramallah Da Silva. Canada is complicit in Israel’s violation of international law in regard to Human Rights Defencer Salah Hamouri.
Condemn and reject the Israeli decision to revoke the Salah Hamouri’s Jerusalem residency based on a secret file and allegations of disloyalty to the occupying power.
Third party countries need to activate universal jurisdiction in accordance with Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure that Israel is held accountable and does not enjoy impunity for the grave violations it commits against Palestinians, including arbitrary detention and forced displacement.
Canada is obliged under Article 1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to ensure that violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention do not occur under any circumstance.
Salah Hamouri’s case illustrates the Israeli authorities’ apartheid regime, including the widespread and systematic practice of illegal deportation and demographic manipulation, as manifested through its laws, policies, and practices, to maintain an institutionalized regime of domination and oppression over the Palestinian people as a whole.
In June 2022,a letter was sent to the Canadian Head of Mission in Ramallah, Robin Wettlaufer signed by more than 30 civil society organizations from Canada, Palestine and elsewhere, and more than 100 lawyers, academics, faith leaders and others, most from Canada. They urged Wettlaufer to visit human rights defender and lawyer Salah Hammouri in Ofer prison, and to pressure Israeli authorities for Salah Hammouri’s immediate and unconditional release. About 1,000 letters were written to around this time to Global Affairs Minister Joly and the Ramallah based Head of Mission Wettlaufer.
An Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) request received by Just Peace Advocates shows that the Head of Mission in Ramallah seems to have dismissed letters.
Salah Hamouri, the imprisoned French-Palestinian lawyer and human rights defender jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention since March 2022, has been told by occupation prison administrators in Hadarim prison that he will be forcibly deported to France and stripped of his Jerusalem ID on Sunday, 4 December. His detention is scheduled to expire on 4 December, upon which he could be released home to Jerusalem, face yet another extension of his arbitrary detention or be forcibly deported to France.
Hamouri has been fighting the attempt to forcibly exile him to France since 2021, when the Israeli occupation interior minister issued an order stripping Hamouri of his residency in Jerusalem, the city in which he was born and in which he lives, after multiple threats to do so. When he was seized from his home in March 2022, it was only days after he published an article in English on his case in Jacobin magazine about his battle against the attempt of the Israeli occupation to forcibly expel him from his home city of Jerusalem.
The Justice for Salah campaign is calling for a Twitter storm on Thursday, 1 December, from 3 pm to 5 pm Jerusalem time (5 am to 7 am Pacific time, 8 am to 10 am Eastern time, 2 pm to 4 pm central Europe) to demand justice and liberation in Palestine for Salah Hamouri. Follow the latest updates from the campaign website.
Over the years, Salah has been relentlessly targeted by Israeli occupation authorities, subjected to arbitrary arrests, administrative detention without charge or trial, exorbitant fines, travel bans against him and his family, the deportation of his wife and French national Elsa Lefort, and, most recently, the illegal revocation of his permanent residency and forced deportation from Jerusalem on 18 October 2021. Moreover, on 8 November 2021, a Front Line Defenders investigation conducted in collaboration with Citizen Lab and Amnesty International’s Security Lab found that Salah Hammouri had been one of six Palestinian HRDs hacked by Israeli NSO Group’s notorious Pegasus spyware.
Hamouri’s case was widely known throughout France as a symbol of injustice and false allegations until his release in 2011 in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange, only a few months before his sentence was to end. He has spoken throughout France and internationally at events like the World Social Forum on Palestinian prisoners and the struggle for freedom.
In 2016, Hamouri’s French wife, Elsa Lefort, was expelled from occupied Palestine. At the time, she was pregnant. Since that date, she has been banned from entering Israel on the ludicrous basis that she poses “a danger to the security of the State of Israel.” As a result, Israel has forced Salah to live apart from his wife and children. He has also been repeatedly arrested (13 months jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention in 2018-2019; detained for one week in 2020; currently detained without charge or trial for over 200 days.) He is constantly subjected to interrogation and questioning and denied the ability to travel and visit his family and France. All of this is a daily form of painful psychological torture imposed on Salah and his family.
The Israeli occupation uses the forced revocation of residency for Palestinians from East Jerusalem as a means to displace Palestinians and forcibly create a “Jewish majority” in the occupied city as well as a means to silence Palestinian activists and organizers. As noted by Al-Haq, “Revocation of permanent residency status is the most direct tool used to forcibly transfer Palestinians from East Jerusalem. This policy which has been used by Israel more than 14,500 times between 1967 and 2015, and is illegal under international law.”
In Hamouri’s Jacobin article, he speaks about resistance to expulsion from Palestine, and his home city Jerusalem:
Everything Israel’s apartheid regime has done is aimed at silencing me and encouraging me to give up and leave the country, as they do with any Palestinian who refuses to bow their head and submit to ethnic cleansing. Israeli authorities are creating a bespoke plan of harassment for each politically active person, arresting and harassing them, and where this doesn’t work, stripping them of their IDs or health insurance and targeting their family and businesses. They target those that speak out in order to weaken our collective resistance and to more easily expel us.
My own story demonstrates that the Israeli regime is absolutely ruthless, operating with a calculated cruelty that knows no limits. Our family’s enforced separation is intended to inflict suffering, to deny my children a father and the experiences and joys of growing up in their homeland with the love of my extended family. Interactions with my children are limited to stolen moments over video call, attempts to forge and maintain a connection despite the distance.
This isn’t what I want for my children. But it is better they know that I fought for justice rather than passively accepting ethnic cleansing, better that I do all I can to remain steadfast in our land than acquiesce to Israel’s harassment. I am continuing with my struggle because I want all Palestinians to live with freedom and dignity, and I know this will not come without a fight, without sacrifice on the part of those willing to take a stand.
Last year, Palestinians rose in the thousands to defend Jerusalem, sparking an uprising that spread throughout all Palestinians communities in rejection of Israeli colonization. A new generation repeated its commitment to carry forward the struggle for justice, for liberation and for the rights of Palestinian refugees living for decades in exile. As our people have not given up, neither can I, and neither can the millions around the world who support Palestine, and whose commitment to our cause is more important now than ever before.
During his previous imprisonment, Hamouri’s case won wide support among French popular movements and even elected officials, with over 1,000 signing a call for his release. Nevertheless, French official diplomacy continued to drag its feet rather than defend its citizen, attempting to ban the Collectif Palestine Vaincra and other pro-Palestine associations while a French citizen is jailed without charge or trial in occupied Palestine.
Hamouri is currently among approximately 820 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, out of approximately 4,700 total Palestinian political prisoners in total imprisoned by the Israeli occupation.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces the attempt to strip Salah Hamouri of his Jerusalemite identity and his Palestinian presence in the land of Palestine. We demand an end to the ongoing imprisonment of Salah Hamouri, the use of administrative detention to target Palestinian leaders and human rights defenders, and the ongoing Israeli ethnic cleansing project in Jerusalem targeting the Palestinian people and identity of the city, the capital of Palestine. We urge all supporters of Palestine to take action to demand the liberation of Salah Hamouri and every Palestinian prisoner jailed in the occupation prisons.
