Palestinian-French prisoner punished by Israel for interview with journalist

Palestinian-French human rights defender Salah Hamouri has been punished by the Israeli authorities after conducting an interview with a French journalist.

According to prisoners’ rights group Addameer, for whom Hamouri works as a field researcher, the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) moved the 33-year-old dual national from al Naqab prison to Megiddo prison “under the pretext that he has been engaged in incitement”.

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“Salah had participated in an interview with a French journalist where he discussed visits from his lawyer, the process of administrative detention, and the techniques used by the IPS against administrative detainees. He was informed of his being transported on 28 December 2017”.

Hamouri was arrested on 23 August from his home in a dawn raid, and is currently serving a six-month administrative detention order (no charge or trial).

“Hamouri has previously been held in Israeli prisons twice, with the first time amounting to around two years”, Addameer notes. “Subsequently, in 2005, Salah was sentenced to seven years. He was released after six and a half years as a result of the ‘Shalit’ agreement in 2011”.

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Following his release, Hamouri “began studying law at al Quds University in Abu Dis. He had completed his degree, and passed the Palestinian Lawyers Union exam three days prior to his arrest”.