National, regional, and international civil society organizations welcomed the communication submitted to the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on behalf of 37-year-old Palestinian-French Jerusalemite, long-time human rights defender, and lawyer Salah Hammouri, which details years of persecution and new tactics to forcibly transfer Palestinians from occupied Jerusalem.
The Center for Constitutional Rights and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) submitted the communication on Hammouri’s behalf in the context of the OTP’s ongoing investigation into the Situation in the State of Palestine.
The communication, addressed to ICC prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan, sets out the prolonged persecution campaign perpetrated by the Israeli authorities targeting Hammouri since he was 15 years old, including intense harassment, repeated arbitrary detention, and the denial of his fundamental rights, including the right to family unity; freedom of movement; the freedom of association, assembly, expression and the right to protest; the right to pursue a livelihood; and the right to citizenship. The latest in this series of attacks was the revocation of his Jerusalem residency and placing him under administrative detention subject to indefinite renewals.