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Since March 7, Salah Hamouri, a 37-year-old Franco-Palestinian lawyer, rights defender and father of two children has been in administrative detention. His next hearing is on December 4. But for 12 days already, to protest against this mode of detention, he started a hunger strike with 29 other detainees. Salah Hamouri has already spent 7 years in prison, accused by Israel of having participated in a plot to assassinate an Israeli religious and political leader, and of being a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. What he denies. In addition to his detention, he risks deportation from Jerusalem, his hometown, at any time since the revocation of his permanent resident card.
Sitting on one of the sofas in the family apartment in Jerusalem, Denise Hamouri, a retired French teacher, reads and rereads the reports about her son’s conditions of detention that she was last able to see on 12 september : ” Presence of a camera, he only goes out to shower. He showers handcuffed. »
” In retaliation for his hunger strike “, explain the lawyers, Salah Hamouri was placed in solitary confinement. He is alone, in a cell of 4 m2, without windows, without books, or notebooks, or photos of his family. With only two clean underwear and a mattress barely ten centimeters.
” He is deprived of family visits and the canteentestifies Denise Hamouri. He drinks 1 to 2 liters of water a day. He has joint pain, back pain, headache. He can’t sleep well. And finally, the officer nicknamed “Dodo” came to him and told him to go to France as a kind of haggle. But he refused. »
🚨 Salah Hamouri placed in solitary confinement 🚨
Salah Hamouri, on hunger strike since 09.25.2022, was placed in solitary confinement in a punitive manner.He is now in a cell of 4m², without window, with an old mattress and a toilet. pic.twitter.com/G4GlSBKNS7
— Freedom for Salah Hamouri (@LiberezSalah) September 28, 2022
Since March 7, his eldest son, Salah has been in administrative detention. A system that allows Israel to incarcerate defendants without their having access to their file, on the basis of “secret evidence” for periods of three to six months, but renewable indefinitely. A practice that human rights defenders define as ” arbitrary and systematic towards the Palestinians “.
” If he did something, let him be judged. But since he did nothing, why are you keeping him in administrative detention? wonder again Denise Hamouri. His resident card is also withdrawn. How can France accept that? Each time, we are told: “we ask that he live in Jerusalem with his wife”. That’s what we’re asking too. But something has to be done for it to be able to. Here is the problem. For remedies, his lawyer appealed the decision. But nothing. All he has left is the hunger strike. She sees the days advancing, and the situation getting worse.
“ Action by France could be decisive »
For Milena Ansari, of the prisoners’ rights NGO Addammeer, Salah’s case and the revocation of his Jerusalem residency card is above all emblematic: “ This could set a precedent and apply to all Palestinians in Jerusalem. And that is extremely risky. »
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Nathalie Godard, of Amnesty International, said she was worried about the health and respect for the fundamental rights of this French national: “ One has the feeling that much more could be done to defend a Frenchman who is today in prison in Israel under unacceptable conditions from the point of view of international law. »
As for Denise Hamouri, Salah’s mother, she wants no more words or condemnation, and is waiting for a gesture from President Emmanuel Macron, because “ action by France could be decisive “.
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