Wednesday 23 October 2024 at 20.00 Salah Hamouri presents a conference organized by the collective For a just peace in the Middle East at the Maison du Peuple in Brest. An evening held on Thursday in Quimper (6pm in the Saint-François halls) then on Friday in Carhaix. He especially wants to return to his journey.
At the age of 16, Salah Hamouri was arrested and imprisoned by Israel after participating in the second Intifada, where he was shot and wounded. Since then, he has had a series of detentions, some with trial, some not, and became a lawyer in 2017. On December 7, 2022, his status as a resident of Jerusalem, Israel, where he was born and raised, was revoked. This is how he has been forced to live in France for almost two years, being French through his mother. This time in France, the Palestinian lawyer and activist devotes it to “increasing mobilization”. “The center of the struggle is there, but I have a duty to fulfill here. I am probably more useful with the conditional freedom we have in France,” he believes.
“Today things are clearer, we are falling into a long war”
Salah Hamouri therefore wants it to be used in conferences, in his speech to address the issue of political prisoners. “His testimony is very important and also gives us the opportunity to put the Palestinian cause back on the forefront. By the end of the Arab Spring, we were in a corridor of silence. For one year, international mobilization has been impressive, but it is less in France than in e.g. England or Spain,” explains Claude Léostic, from the France-Palestine Solidarité Association.
For these three Finistère conferences, Salah Hamouri, in addition to his history, will address ideas and perspectives for the future, even if the present is dark. “A year ago, everything was a blur. Today things are clearer, we are falling into a long war which extends to Lebanon and which tomorrow may include Iran or even Jordan,” analyzes the Palestinian lawyer. “Until the Palestinians regain their rights, there will be no solution. So the only perspective is to imagine how to strengthen the resilience on the ground,” concludes Salah Hamouri.
Practical
Conference by Salah Hamouri on Wednesday 23 October at 20.00 at Maison du Peuple, 2, place Édouard-Mazé, in Brest. Free entry.