France condemns expulsion of Palestinian lawyer from occupied Jerusalem

The French foreign ministry condemned on Sunday Israel’s expulsion of Palestinian lawyer and human rights activist Salah Hamouri from his home city of Jerusalem, Euro News has reported. Hamouri has French citizenship.

“The ministry has taken full action, including at the highest level of the State, to ensure that Mr Salah Hamouri’s rights are respected, that he benefits from all legal remedies and that he can lead a normal life in Jerusalem, where he was born, resides and wishes to live,” it was explained in an official statement.

Hamouri has worked as a lawyer for Adameer, a rights group that assists Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Far-right Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked described him as a “terrorist” who has been “deported from Israel”. The occupation state’s occupation of Jerusalem is not recognised in international law, so Hamouri may have been deported by Israel, but not from Israel.

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Moreover, it is increasingly obvious that any Palestinian who works for the legitimate rights of the people of occupied Palestine is called a “terrorist” by the apartheid state; so much so, in fact, that the term carries little real weight when uttered by right-wing Israeli officials.

Hamouri spent a total of more than nine years in Israeli occupation prisons. His longest term in prison was between 2005 and 2011 after he was forced to choose between being deported to France for 15 years or imprisoned for seven years. In October 2021, Israel issued a decision to revoke his Jerusalem residency status on charges of not showing “loyalty” to Israel, a legal judgement based on “secret evidence”.

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