The closer December 4 approached, the more it seemed inevitable that Salah Hamouri’s administrative detention would be extended, as it had been in June and then in September after his sentence in March to three months of administrative detention, for “lack of allegiance to the State of Israel”without formal accusation.
Israel punishes Franco-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri for his hunger strike
“We said he could not be deported before the Supreme Court hearing in February on his Jerusalem residency revoked last year”explains his wife Elsa Lefort.
“Like a desire to close the file on the sly”
The announcement Thursday, December 1 of his expulsion for Sunday 4 took his relatives by surprise, who are still trying to understand the legal mechanism behind it, after years of arm wrestling between Israel and the Franco-Palestinian activist. Thursday, an emergency hearing was to ratify the decision notified the day before orally only to his lawyers. The French consul on site was refused access.
« On a l’impression that there is a desire to close the file on the sly, while Emmanuel Macron and Catherine Colonna are in the United States and to speed things up without really knowing why”believes Elsa Lefort, who denounces an obvious failure of French diplomacy. “What did she achieve? Nothing, she is not respected, she is even humiliated. This illustrates the contempt that the Israeli authorities have for France.adds the French calmly.
The Quai d’Orsay for its part repeated Thursday as for months that Salah Hamouri had to « able to lead a normal life in Jerusalem,” his hometown. The 37-year-old lawyer, who has spent more than seven years in prison since 2001, is still considered by the Israeli authorities to be a member of a terrorist organization, which he denies.
” The fight goes on “
On a personal level, Elsa Lefort recognizes shared feelings. “This expulsion means that he will no longer be in prison, that we will see each other again for the first time since May 2021, after eighteen months of suffering for him as for us. The last time our daughter saw him she was 11 days old. She is 19 months old today. she points out. But for Salah, it would be a heartbreak to be deported, an injustice not to be able to live in Jerusalem. How can a state afford to detain a man without charge and cancel all pending proceedings, without even being able to go to the Supreme Court? »
The Israeli decision, which coincides with the presentation Thursday to his wife of the prize awarded to Salah Hamouri by the Association of Christians against Torture (Acat), does not affect his determination. ” The fight goes on. We will adapt our fight, as we have already done, this time for the right of return of Palestinian refugeesshe assures. What the Israeli authorities don’t realize or don’t care about is that in France, Salah will be even more vocal in denouncing the crimes of the occupation and speaking out for thousands of Palestinian political detainees. »