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Israeli court extends detention of Salah Hamouri with 'deportation still looming'

"Salah has been in legal limbo since his arrest, with the real possibility of deportation looming at the end of his detention," a source at Addameer Prisoner Support Association told °®Âþµº.
3 min read
West Bank
06 September, 2022
Hamouri has been detained by Israeli forces without charges since March. [Getty]

Israeli court renewed on Monday the administrative detention of for an additional three months.

Hamouri has been detained without charges since , between Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Hamouri had been since Israeli authorities revoked his residency rights in Jerusalem last October.

Hamouri's wife and children have been banned from entering the country since 2016, which forced him to live in constant travel between France and the Palestinian territories until his Jerusalem residency revocation " to the state of Israel.

"Salah has been in legal limbo since his arrest  looming at the end of his detention," a source at told °®Âþµº.

"The renewal of his detention order might indicate that Israeli authorities are still undecided to deport Salah," said the source. "If carried out, it would be the first deportation ever of a Palestinian based on the so-called ‘lack of allegiance’, and a dangerous precedent," they pointed out.

In late July, , classifying him as a 'highly dangerous inmate' after a letter he addressed to the French president on the occasion of the French Bastille day from his prison.

In the letter, Hamouri urged the French government to act on his behalf and put pressure on Israel to end the administrative detention policy.

In May, , urging it to investigate Israel's crimes.

In April, for having his phone hacked by the company's 'Pegasus' malware, while on French soil.

Hamouri , including serving a seven-year sentence in Israeli jails between 2005 and 2012 for charges of anti-Israeli militantism during the second Intifada.

Since his release in 2012, Hamouri pursued his studies in law and engaged in the defence of Palestinian prisoners before Israeli courts, in which he pleaded hundreds of times as an accredited attorney. He also formed a family with his French-national wife, Elsa Lefort.

, Lefort described her husband's forced residency in Kufr Aqab as "completely isolated from his professional, social and family universe, banned from crossing any checkpoint and had to remain in the boundaries of Kufr Aqab".

"It was impossible for him to plead in court or to meet his clients in person," she added.

Several human rights organizations have expressed support for Hamouri's case, including and .

Currently, some 670 Palestinians are held in administrative detention, without charges in Israeli jails, .

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