Ramallah: Palestinian authorities have condemned Israel’s decision to deport East Jerusalem resident Salah Al-Hamouri, a French-Palestinian lawyer and rights activist, to France.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the deportation of Al-Hamouri “is an outrageous step committed by the illegal occupation and a war crime that is added to its long list of crimes committed against the Palestinians”, reports Xinhua news agency.
It urged the international community, including France, “to hold Israel accountable for its ongoing crimes, including the forcible displacement of the lawyer”.
“We call on the UN Security Council to uphold its obligations and bring an end to Israel’s continuous war crimes,” it said.
The Israeli authorities deported Al-Hamouri to France on Sunday midnight, “although the legal procedures that were scheduled in his case had not yet ended, including the objection to withdrawing his identity”, said the Palestinian Prisoners Club Association, an NGO.
Israeli media reported that Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked announced that the deportation of Al-Hamouri and the withdrawal of his Jerusalem identity card took place due to his involvement in armed activities.
On November 30, Israeli authorities informed Al-Hamouri, who was under administrative detention, that he would be deported to France and his identity revoked, to which the activist objected.
On December 5, the administrative detention order against him ended, and an Israeli court decided the next day, after two court sessions held for him, to keep him until a decision on his deportation was determined, and his identity was revoked.
Al-Hamouri, 37, has spent a total of more than nine years in Israeli prisons and was re-arrested in March.
–IANS
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