Israel’s interior ministry says it has deported a Palestinian-French human rights lawyer after accusing him of security threats.
Salah Hammouri, 37, was escorted onto a flight to France by police early on Sunday morning, the ministry said.
A lifelong resident of Jerusalem, he was stripped of his residency rights after officials accused him of being a member of a terrorist organisation.
Mr Hammouri denies the charges and rights groups have condemned the move.
The French foreign ministry also expressed disappointment at the decision, and said it condemned “the Israeli authorities’ decision, against the law, to expel Salah Hammouri to France”.
But in a statement, the Israeli interior ministry said Mr Hammouri had “organised, inspired and planned to commit terror attacks” against “citizens and well-known Israelis”.
Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, part of the outgoing Israeli government, hailed the move as a personal success.
“Justice has been done to the terrorist and he has been deported from Israel,” she said in a statement.
“This was a long and protracted process and it is a tremendous achievement that I was able to bring about his deportation just before the end of my duties, using the tools at my disposal to advance the fight against terrorism.”
Mr Hammouri holds French citizenship through his mother. He held residency rights in Jerusalem – a fragile system used by Palestinians in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem which can be revoked by authorities. He does not hold Israeli citizenship.
He works for Addameer, a Palestinian legal aid and prisoners’ rights group that was designated a terrorist organisation by the Israeli defence ministry in October 2021 along with five other Palestinian civil society groups. (BBC)
