On the morning of his expected release from Ofer military prison following a 3-months administrative detention – ie. arbitrary detention without charges or trial – Israeli occupation authorities renewed the administrative detention of Salah Hammouri, Palestinian lawyer and human rights defender, for another period of three-month without charges or trial and based on “secret information” although the Israeli military commander signed the renewal order against Salah on 2 June 2022, Salah’s legal counsel were only notified moments before his expected release and Salah only learned about his renewal order in the morning of his expected release day through news channels.
Salah Hammouri was last arrested on 7 March 2022, when approximately 25 Israeli occupation special forces’ agents raided his home at dawn in Kufr Aqab, north of Jerusalem.
More than 600 Palestinian administrative detainees are currently undertaking a collective boycott of Israeli military courts to protest the Israeli occupation’s illegal systematic, and arbitrary practice of administrative detention. Salah joins the boycott, refusing to participate in the military proceedings related to his administrative detention and requesting his legal counsel do the same.
Last-minute extension of the administrative detention period is part of the psychological warfare of the Israeli occupation on political prisoners. Once detainees begin to think that they will soon be released, the Israeli occupation authorities often renew the arbitrary detention. Unpredictability, loss of control, and the absence of a specific end date are all contributing factors to causing acute pressure on detainees and their families and forcing them to live in a “permanent state of waiting.”
The arbitrary arrest and detention of Salah Hammouri are made more urgent and exceptional in light of the Israeli Minister of Interior’s unlawful decision, on 18 October 2021, to revoke his permanent residency status in Jerusalem based on a “breach of allegiance to the State of Israel.” The initiation of his residency revocation under Amendment No. 30 to the Entry into Israel Law of 1952 is a profound violation of international law and puts him at imminent risk of forced deportation from his hometown and homeland.
Residency revocation is one of the tools used by the Israeli occupation authorities to ethnically cleanse Jerusalem from Palestinians and since 1967, more than 14,000 have been stripped of their Jerusalemite ID.
Salah Hammouri, 37 years old, is a Palestinian-French Jerusalemite, long-time human rights defender (HRD), a lawyer with Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and a former political prisoner. Salah has been the subject of Israeli persecution since he was 15 years old when he sustained a bullet injury in 2000. He was first arrested at the age of 16 and has since then been facing continuous judicial and administrative harassment by the Israeli occupation authorities, including six periods of imprisonment and arbitrary arrests, several travel bans, exorbitant bail and fines, house arrests, and separation from his family, surveillance and spyware attack.
The Justice for Salah campaign calls upon states, international and national NGOs, and supporters to call for:
- The Immediate release of Salah Hammouri from administrative detention
- End all threats of deportation against Salah Hammouri
- End all ID revocation and deportation policies in Jerusalem
- Cease all harassment of Salah Hammouri and permit him and his family to live freely in Jerusalem.