Salah Hammouri's deportation order on hold pending further legal hearings

Salah Hammouri's deportation appears unlikely in the following days after two court hearings on Tuesday. 

The 37-year-old political prisoner will remain in a maximum-security prison pending a court's decision on the deportation order. 

A judicial review of Hammouri's detention was also scheduled for 1 January 2023. 

According to the 'Justice for Salah' web page, the court will look into Hammouri's residency revocation. 

Among the hearing attendees were representatives of the Israel migration authority. Hammouri was considered a foreigner by the Israeli authorities; after the interior ministry revoked his residency status in October 2021. 

The French Consul also attended Tuesday's legal hearings. 

Salah Hammouri is a French citizen but also had permanent resident status in Israel- until recently- as his father is a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem. The French government opposed Israel's intent to expel Salah Hammouri to France. 

Hasan and Denise Hammouri, Salah's parents, were not allowed to attend the hearings in Ramle. 

"This is a strategy to get rid of us," Hasan Hammouri remarked about the expulsion order against Salah to The New Arab. "There is no law that allows them to do that."

Update: 6 Dec, 2022

Today, Salah Hammouri and his legal representatives, including Adv. Lea Tsemel, Adv. Mahmoud Hassan, and HaMoked Center for the Defense of the Individual, attended two hearing sessions regarding Salah’s deportation and residency revocation.#justiceforsalah

— JusticeforSalah (@JusticeforSalah) December 6, 2022

Last week international law professor Mounir Nusseibeh called on airliners not to cooperate with the Israeli authorities in deporting Hammouri. 

Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the June 1967 war. A short time later, Israel illegally annexed East Jerusalem and granted its Palestinian residents permanent residency but not citizenship.

Most countries consider the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, occupied territory.