Human Rights Organisations Send Urgent Appeal to UN Special Procedures on the Imminent Threat of Forcible Transfer/Deportation of Salah Hammouri for “Breach of Allegiance”

Based on Israel’s domestic Entry into Israel Law, which is illegally applied to the protected Palestinian population in the occupied East Jerusalem, the Israeli Minister of Interior is granted the authority to revoke the Israeli residency status based on “breach of allegiance” to the State of Israel. Stipulated by international humanitarian law, specifically Article 45 of the Hague Regulations and Article 68(3) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the protected population in occupied territory does not have a duty of allegiance to the Occupying Power. Residency revocation has long been used by Israel as a tool to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the occupied East Jerusalem, to reduce and eliminate Palestinian presence therein and to alter demographic facts on the ground. Residency revocations, including punitive revocations, flagrantly violate numerous other provisions of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Revocation of residency leads to forcible transfer, a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention. As residency revocations form part of a widespread and systematic policy to transfer the protected Palestinian population, it may also amount to a crime against humanity.