The United Nations has condemned Israel’s expulsion of Palestinian lawyer Salah Al-Hamuri after his arrest last March without charge as a war crime.
Jeremy Lawrence, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: “International humanitarian law prohibits the expulsion of protected persons from occupied territory and expressly prohibits compelling such persons to swear allegiance to the occupying power.”
“The expulsion of a protected person from occupied territory is a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and constitutes a war crime,” he added in a statement sent to the media.
A UN spokesman said the UN Human Rights Office “condemns Israel’s deportation” of Hammory to France, and “we are deeply concerned about the horrifying message this sends to human rights defenders in the occupied Palestinian territories.”
He believed that his deportation “highlights the fragile situation of the Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, where the occupying authorities have granted them revocable residence status under Israeli law”, noting that “this indicates a serious deterioration in the situation of Palestinian human rights defenders.” “
Salah Al-Khamuri was deported to France, of which he is a citizen, on Sunday.
Al-Hamuri, 37, was sentenced last March to three months of administrative detention, a controversial measure that allows Israel to imprison suspects without formal charges.
The High Commissioner called on Israel to lift the deportation order.
Israeli authorities arrested Hammouri on suspicion of links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist faction that the Jewish state considers “terrorist,” which Hammouri denied.
Salah al-Hamuri was born in a part of the city occupied and annexed by the Jewish state, does not have Israeli citizenship, but has a residence permit revoked by the Israeli authorities in a procedure to which he objects.
In early December, the Israeli authorities confirmed the revocation of his residence permit, paving the way for his deportation despite a new hearing scheduled for January 1.
Source: AFP