- Update info:
- 29 Oct 2018 (Suspended)
- Latest info:
- 27 Jul 2018 (Updated)
- 13 Mar 2018 (Updated)
- 5 Oct 2017
- Country:
- ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES/PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
- Subject:
- Salah Hammouri (m), Hasan Safadi (m), Khalida Jarrar (f), and other Addameer staff members (m)
Gender : both
- Period:
- 29 Nov 2018
- Distribution date:
- 5 Oct 2017
- UA No:
- 226/2017
French-Palestinian NGO worker Salah Hammouri has been issued a six-month administrative detention order. He is a field researcher for Palestinian NGO, Addameer and has been held by Israel without charge or trial since 23 August.
On 17 September, an Israeli District Court in Jerusalem confirmed the original six-month administrative detention order signed by Minister of Defence, Avigdor Lieberman, for Salah Hammouri, 32. He continues to be held inside Israel in Ketziot prison.
Israeli border police detained Salah Hammouri during an overnight raid on 23 August at his home in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab. The Israeli Minister of Defence then issued a six-month administrative detention order against Salah Hammouri. On 5 September, the day of the order's confirmation hearing, the Jerusalem District Court decided to instead reinstate Salah Hammouri’s remaining time on a previous sentence for a conviction from 2005, under which he would serve three months in prison, a decision that was appealed by the prosecution. On 13 September Israel’s High Court ruled in favour of the prosecution’s appeal against reinstating the sentence. And on 17 September the Israeli District Court confirmed the initial six-month administrative detention order.
Salah Hammouri is a French national and a resident of East Jerusalem. He works as a field researcher in Jerusalem for Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian human rights organization based in Ramallah. Salah Hammouri is the second Addameer staff member to be held in administrative detention, as the organization’s Media Coordinator, Hasan Safadi, has been detained since 10 June 2016 without charge or trial. An additional five staff members from the organization are banned by the Israeli authorities from travelling outside Israel and Palestine. Addameer’s board member Khalida Jarrar has also been held in administrative detention since 2 July 2017.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Salah Hammouri was detained during an overnight raid on 23 August at his home in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab. He was then transferred the Israel Security Agency (ISA) interrogation centre in Jerusalem, within the Russian Compound detention centre, where his detention was extended.
Israeli authorities formerly imprisoned Salah Hammouri for seven years, and released him as part of a prisoner exchange deal in 2011. The Israeli authorities banned the East Jerusalem resident from entering the occupied West Bank until September 2016, and have also banned his wife, a French national, from entering the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) or Israel since 2016. In February 2016, Salah Hammouri’s wife was deported from Israel after being detained for three days at a detention centre near Ben Gurion airport. Salah Hammouri’s family, including his wife, child, and father in-law, have been harassed and threatened by unknown people, after a French website published all of their contact details.
Administrative detention – ostensibly introduced as an exceptional measure to detain people who pose an extreme and imminent danger to security – is used by Israel as an alternative to arresting, charging and prosecuting people suspected of criminal offences, or to detain people who should not have been arrested at all. Orders can be renewed indefinitely and evidence is kept secret, meaning that detainees are not able to effectively challenge their detention and do not know when they will be released. Amnesty International believes that some Palestinians held in administrative detention by Israel are prisoners of conscience, held solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression, assembly or association. Since October 2015, violence in Israel and the OPT has increased dramatically. As during other periods of heightened tension in the OPT, the Israeli authorities responded by carrying out mass arrests, and issuing more and more administrative detention orders, including a resumption of its use against children. According to the Israeli human rights organization Hamoked, as of September 2017, there were 477 administrative detainees held without charge or trial by Israel.
All but one of the Israeli prisons holding Palestinian administrative detainees is located inside Israel. The detention of Palestinians from the OPT inside Israel violates international law. The Fourth Geneva Convention stipulates that detainees from occupied territories must be held in the occupied territory, not in the territory of the occupying power.
Amnesty International has documented an escalation of acts of intimidation by the Israeli government against human rights activists in the OPT. Israel has also taken steps to curtail freedom of expression inside Israel with officials using intimidation and smear campaigns to target human rights organizations and their staff.
UA: 226/17 Index: MDE 15/7211/2017 Issue Date: 2 October 2017
- Update info:
- 29 Oct 2018 (Suspended)
- Latest info:
- 27 Jul 2018 (Updated)
- 13 Mar 2018 (Updated)
- 5 Oct 2017
- Country:
- ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES/PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
- Subject:
- Salah Hammouri (m), Hasan Safadi (m), Khalida Jarrar (f), and other Addameer staff members (m)
Gender : both
- Period:
- 29 Nov 2018
- Distribution date:
- 13 Mar 2018
- UA No:
- 226/2017
On 5 March, an Israel court confirmed the renewal of the administrative detention of NGO worker Salah Hammouri for a further four months. He is a field researcher for Palestinian NGO Addameer and has been held by Israel without charge or trial since 23 August 2017.
On 26 February, an Israeli district court in Jerusalem renewed the administrative detention order against Salah Hammouri, a French-Palestinian NGO worker, for a further four months. His detention is now expected to end on 28 June. Salah Hammouri, who is currently held in Ketziot prison in southern Israel, had been given a six-month administrative detention order on 29 August 2017, which was confirmed on 17 September 2017. It was set to end on 26 February 2018. The same court confirmed the renewal on 5 March.
The court had been due to hold the hearing to confirm the renewal on 1 March, but postponed it because Salah Hammouri’s lawyers had decided to boycott the session, as part of an ongoing protest by Palestinian detainees and their lawyers to demand an end to the policy of administrative detention. In the same context, on 13 February, Palestinians imprisoned by Israel without charge or trial under administrative detention had issued a statement (http://cda.gov.ps/index.php/ar/ar-news/5025-2018-02-20-08-49-53) to say that they would begin a boycott campaign against military courts starting form 15 February.
Israeli forces detained Salah Hammouri during an overnight raid on 23 August 2017 at his home in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab. Salah Hammouri is a resident of East Jerusalem. He works as a field researcher in Jerusalem for Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian human rights organization based in Ramallah. Khalida Jarrar, a board member of Addameer, has also been held in administrative detention since 2 July 2017, and three staff members of the organization are banned by the Israeli authorities from travelling outside Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Salah Hammouri was arrested during an overnight raid on 23 August 2017 at his home in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab. He was then transferred to the Israel Security Agency (ISA) detention centre within the Russian Compound in Jerusalem. On 5 September, the day of a hearing to confirm the six-month administrative detention order he was given on 17 August, an Israeli district court in Jerusalem decided instead to reinstate three of the six months remaining from a prison sentence Salah Hammouri had served following a conviction in 2005. The prosecution appealed against the decision, requesting that the period of imprisonment be extended. However, on 13 September, Israel’s High Court overruled the reinstatement of the sentence. On 17 September, the district court in Jerusalem confirmed the initial six-month administrative detention order.
According to Addameer, on 2 January, Hammouri was transferred by the Israel Prison Service (IPS) from Ketziot prison to Megiddo prison, north of Israel, as a punishment for doing an interview with a French journalist in which he discussed the policy of administrative detention. Hammouri stayed in Megiddo prison until 29 January and then was sent back to Ketziot prison.
Israeli authorities had previously imprisoned Salah Hammouri for seven years and released him as part of a prisoner exchange deal in 2011. The Israeli authorities banned the East Jerusalem resident from entering the occupied West Bank until September 2016, and have banned his wife Elsa Lefort, also a French national, from entering the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) or Israel since 2016. In February 2016, Salah Hammouri’s wife was deported from Israel after being detained for three days at a detention centre near Ben Gurion airport. As a result, his wife and two-year-old child have not been able to see him since his arrest. Salah Hammouri’s family, including his wife, child and father in-law, have been harassed and threatened by unknown people, after a French website published their contact details.
Administrative detention – ostensibly introduced as an exceptional measure to detain people who pose an extreme and imminent danger to security – is used by Israel as an alternative to arresting, charging and prosecuting people suspected of criminal offences, or to detain people who should not have been arrested at all. Orders can be renewed indefinitely and evidence is kept secret, meaning that detainees are not able to effectively challenge their detention and do not know when they will be released. Amnesty International believes that some Palestinians held in administrative detention by Israel are prisoners of conscience, held solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression, assembly or association. Since October 2015, violence in Israel and the OPT has increased dramatically. As during other periods of heightened tension in the OPT, the Israeli authorities have responded by carrying out mass arrests, issuing more and more administrative detention orders, and resuming its use against children. According to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, as of January 2018, there were 437 administrative detainees held without charge or trial by Israel.
All but one of the Israeli prisons holding Palestinian administrative detainees are located inside Israel. The detention of Palestinians from the OPT inside Israel violates international law. The Fourth Geneva Convention stipulates that detainees from occupied territories must be held in the occupied territory, not in the territory of the occupying power.
Amnesty International has documented an escalation of acts of intimidation by the Israeli government against human rights activists in the OPT. Israel has also taken steps to curtail freedom of expression inside Israel with officials using intimidation and smear campaigns to target human rights organizations and their staff.
Further information on UA: 226/17 Index: MDE 15/7967/2018 Issue Date: 08 March 2018
- Update info:
- 29 Oct 2018 (Suspended)
- Latest info:
- 27 Jul 2018 (Updated)
- 13 Mar 2018 (Updated)
- 5 Oct 2017
- Country:
- ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES/PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
- Subject:
- Salah Hammouri
Gender m/f: m
- Period:
- 29 Nov 2018
- Distribution date:
- 27 Jul 2018
- UA No:
- 226/2017
On 27 June, an Israel court confirmed, for the second time, the renewal of the administrative detention of NGO worker and lawyer Salah Hammouri for a further three months. He has been held by Israel without charge or trial since 23 August 2017.
On 27 June, an Israeli district court in Jerusalem confirmed, for the second time, the administrative detention order issued by Israeli Minister of Defence Avigdor Lieberman against Salah Hammouri for a further three months. Salah Hammouri is a French-Palestinian NGO worker and lawyer. His detention is now expected to end on 30 September. Salah Hammouri, who is currently held in Ketziot prison in southern Israel, had been given a six-month administrative detention order on 17 September 2017, which was renewed again on 5 March for another four months.
Salah Hammouri, along with other administrative detainees, is engaged in a collective boycott of Israeli courts, which started on 15 February, to demand an end to the policy of administrative detention, which allows the Israeli authorities to hold detainees indefinitely on secret information without charging or trying them.
Israeli forces detained Salah Hammouri during an overnight raid on 23 August 2017 at his home in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab. Salah Hammouri is a resident of East Jerusalem. His legal studies were repeatedly disrupted by the Israeli authorities barring him from entering the West Bank from March 2015 until September 2016, where his university is located. He graduated in 2017 and three days before his arrest, he passed the Palestinian bar examination to be certified as a practicing lawyer. Salah Hammouri works as a field researcher in Jerusalem for Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian human rights organization based in Ramallah, Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
more
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Salah Hammouri was arrested during an overnight raid on 23 August 2017 at his home in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab. He was then transferred to the Israel Security Agency (ISA) detention centre within the Russian Compound in Jerusalem. On 5 September, the day of a hearing to confirm the six-month administrative detention order issued by Israel’s Minister of Defence Avigdor Lieberman on 17 August, an Israeli district court in Jerusalem decided instead to reinstate three of the six months remaining from a prison sentence Salah Hammouri had served following a conviction in 2005. The prosecution appealed against the decision, requesting that the period of imprisonment be extended. However, on 13 September, Israel’s High Court overruled the reinstatement of the sentence. On 17 September, the district court in Jerusalem confirmed the initial six-month administrative detention order.
According to Addameer, on 2 January, Salah Hammouri was transferred by the Israel Prison Service (IPS) from Ketziot prison, in southern Israel, to Megiddo prison, in northern Israel, as a punishment for doing an interview while in detention with a French journalist in which he discussed Israel’s policy of administrative detention. He was held in Megiddo prison until 29 January and then was transferred back to Ketziot prison.
Israeli authorities had previously imprisoned Salah Hammouri for seven years on charges related to his alleged involvement in the plot to kill Israel’s former chief rabbi, he was however released as part of a prisoner exchange deal in 2011. The Israeli authorities banned Salah Hammouri, who is resident of East Jerusalem, from entering other parts of the occupied West Bank from March 2015 until September 2016. The Israeli authorities have also banned his wife Elsa Lefort, also a French national, from entering the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) or Israel since 2016. In February 2016, Elsa Lefort was deported from Israel after being detained for three days at a detention centre near Ben Gurion airport. She and their two-year-old child have not been able to see him since his arrest. Salah Hammouri’s family, including his wife, child and father in-law, have been harassed and threatened by unknown people, after a French website published their contact details. Khalida Jarrar, a board member of Addameer, has also been held in administrative detention since 2 July 2017, and three staff members of the organization are banned by the Israeli authorities from travelling outside Israel and the OPT.
Administrative detention – ostensibly introduced as an exceptional measure to detain people who pose an extreme and imminent danger to security – is used by Israel as an alternative to arresting, charging and prosecuting people suspected of criminal offences, or to detain people who should not have been arrested at all. Orders can be renewed indefinitely and evidence is kept secret, meaning that detainees are not able to effectively challenge their detention and do not know when they will be released. Amnesty International believes that some Palestinians who were held in administrative detention by Israel were prisoners of conscience, held solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression, assembly or association. According to Addameer, as of June 2018, there were 442 administrative detainees, including two children and three legislative council members, held without charge or trial by Israel.
All but one of the Israeli prisons holding Palestinian administrative detainees are located inside Israel. The detention of Palestinians from the OPT inside Israel violates international law. The Fourth Geneva Convention stipulates that detainees from occupied territories must be held in the occupied territory, not in the territory of the occupying power.
Amnesty International has documented an escalation of acts of intimidation by the Israeli government against human rights activists in the OPT. Israel has also taken steps to curtail freedom of expression inside Israel with officials using intimidation and smear campaigns to target human rights organizations and their staff.
Further information on UA: 226/17 Index: MDE 15/8798/2018 Issue Date: 24 July 2018
- Update info:
- 29 Oct 2018 (Suspended)
- Latest info:
- 27 Jul 2018 (Updated)
- 13 Mar 2018 (Updated)
- 5 Oct 2017
- Country:
- ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES/PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
- Subject:
- Salah Hammouri
Gender m/f: m
- Period:
- 29 Nov 2018
- Distribution date:
- 29 Oct 2018
- UA No:
- 226/2017
On 30 September, Salah Hammouri, French-Palestinian lawyer and NGO worker, was released from Ketziot prison in southern Israel. He had spent one year in administrative detention without charge or trial.
On 30 September, a French-Palestinian NGO worker and lawyer Salah Hammouri was released from Ketziot prison in southern Israel, after spending 378 days in administrative detention without charge or trial. Salah Hammouri works as a field researcher in Jerusalem for Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian human rights organization based in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. According to Addameer, Salah Hammouri’s release came after an Israeli judge ruled to not renew his administrative detention again. He has now returned to his home in the neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab, in occupied East Jerusalem.
On 17 August 2017, Israel’s Minister of Defence Avigdor Lieberman issued a six-month administrative detention order against Salah Hammouri. Consequently, he was arrested during an overnight raid on 23 August 2017, at his home in occupied East Jerusalem. On 5 September, the day of the hearing to confirm the six-month administrative detention order, an Israeli district court in Jerusalem decided instead to reinstate a three-month sentence, the remainder of a previous prison sentence Salah Hammouri had served following a conviction in 2005. However, on 13 September, Israel’s High Court ruled in favour of the prosecution’s appeal against reinstating the sentence and approved placing him under administrative detention for six months. And on 17 September, the Israeli District Court confirmed the initial six-month administrative detention order, which was renewed twice by the same court on 5 March and 27 June, each time for a further four months.
In February 2016, the Israeli authorities deported and banned Salah Hammouri’s wife Elsa Lefort, also a French national, from entering the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and Israel, after detaining her for three days at a detention centre near Ben Gurion airport. She and their two-year-old child have not been able to see Salah Hammouri since his arrest.
Salah Hammouri spoke to Amnesty International after his release and delivered the following message of thanks to all those who took action on his behalf: “Despite my deprivation of liberty, I had no doubt that the mobilization would grow in support of my case. I had no doubt that supporters from all over the world would stand again to denounce the injustice and arbitrary detention and to demand my release.’’
He added: ‘’This was a real hope for me, for my family, for my wife and son that I have not seen in over a year. I thank you all sincerely. I want to tell you that I will be worthy of the support you are giving me and keep fighting the injustice that strikes us. Our freedom is not for sale, even if we sometimes pay a very high price. The Palestinian people, like all others, should live freely. The fact that you do not intend to give up, gives me and others so much strength to continue our struggle against the occupation. The support and mobilization should continue until the release of all Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, including my colleagues from Addameer Ayman Nasser and Khalida Jarrar, which are cases that Amnesty International continues to campaign on.’’
Thank you to all those who sent appeals. No further action is requested from the UA network.
This is the third update of UA 226/17. Further information: www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/7211/2017/en/ .