Arbitrary detention and judicial harassment of Mr. Salah Hamouri

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URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY

ISR 001 / 0917 / OBS 096

Arbitrarydetention /

Judicialharassment /

Sentence

Israel / Occupied Palestinian Territory

September 6, 2017

TheObservatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of FIDHand the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Description of the situation:

The Observatory has beeninformed by reliable sources about the arbitrary detention and judicialharassment of Mr. Salah Hamouri, aFranco-Palestinian lawyer and field researcher with Addameer Prisoner Supportand Human Rights Association (Addameer)[1] inthe Occupied Palestinian Territory. He is also a former prisoner of opinion whospent six years in Israeli jail.

Accordingto the information received, on September 5, 2017, the Jerusalem District Courtreinstated a sentence against Mr. Salah Hamouri originally issued in 2005 andordered him to serve the remaining three-month sentence. This represents thetime that was left for Mr. Salah Hamouri to serve prior to his release as partof the Wafa Al Ahrar exchange deal (see background information). Arepresentative from the French Consulate in Jerusalem and Mr. Salah Hamouri’sfather were prevented from entering the courtroom.

Mr. SalahHamouri is accused by Israeli authorities of being a member of the PopularFront for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Inaddition, Mr. Salah Hamouri’s wife, Ms. Elsa Lefort a French national, iscurrently banned by Israeli authorities from entering Palestine.

TheObservatory condemns the arbitrary detention and judicial harassment of Mr. Salah Hamouri as it appears to be aform of retaliation for his human rights activities, in particular withPalestinian political prisoners.

TheObservatory urges Israeli authorities to immediately release Mr. Salah Hamouri,to put an end to all forms of harassment, including at the judicial level,against him and members of his family.

Background information:

On March13, 2005, Mr. Salah Hamouri was arrested by the Israeli military at Qalqiliyacheckpoint and sentenced to seven years in prison for his alleged involvementin a plot to assassinate Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of the religious andultra-orthodox party Shas, and former Chief Rabbi of Israel.

Mr. SalahHamouri was to be released on March 13, 2012, but instead, was set free onDecember 18, 2011, as part of the Wafa Al Ahrar prisoner exchange deal[2].

On August23, 2017, Mr. Salah Hamouri was arrested from his house in Jerusalem by theIsraeli Army.

On August29, 2017, the Jerusalem Magistrate Court ordered the conditional release of Mr.Salah Hamouri and his placement under house arrest in Al-Reineh for 20 days.The Court also banned Mr. Salah Hamouri from entering Jerusalem, fromtravelling outside the country for three months and ordered a 10,000 NIS(approx. 2642 Euros) bail.

When Mr.Salah Hamouri’s family went to pay the bail, they were told he would not bereleased and had received a six-months administrative detention order.

Actions requested:

Pleasewrite to the authorities of Israel urging them to:

i. Immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Salah Hamouri as wellas all detained human rights defenders in Israel and the Occupied PalestinianTerritory;

ii. Put an end to all forms of harassment, including at the judiciallevel, against Mr. Salah Hamouri, his family, as well as against all humanrights defenders in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory;

iii. Comply with theprovisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by theGeneral Assembly on December 9, 1998, in particular Articles 1 and 12.2;

iv. More generally,ensure in all circumstances the respect for human rights and fundamentalfreedoms throughout Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory in accordancewith international human rights instruments.

Addresses:

· Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister ofIsrael – Minister of Foreign Affairs; Fax: + 972 267 055 55; Email: b.netanyahu@pmo.gov.il, pm_eng@pmo.gov.il- Tel: 972-2-5303111; Fax: 972-2-5303367

· Mr. Avigdor Liberman, Minister of Defense; Tel:+972 267 532 31 / Fax: +972 369 169 40; Email: aliberman@knesset.gov.il

· Ms. Ayelet Shaked; Minister of Justice; Fax: +972262 886 18; E-mail: sar@justice.gov.il

· H.E. Ambassador Ms. Aviva Raz Shechter, Permanent Mission of Israel to theUnited Nations in Geneva, Avenue de la Paix 1-3, 1202 Geneva,Switzerland. Fax: +41 22 716 05 55. Emil: mission-israel@geneva.mfa.gov.il

· H.E. Ambassador Simona Frankel; Embassy ofIsrael in Belgium and Luxembourg, Avenue de l'Observatoire 40, 1180 Brussels,Belgium; Fax: +32 2 373.56.17; Email: web@brussels.mfa.gov.il

Please also write to the diplomatic mission or embassy ofIsrael in your respective country.

***

Paris-Geneva,September 6, 2017

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of thisappeal in your reply.

The Observatory, an FIDH and OMCT partnership, is dedicated to theprotection of human rights defenders and aims to offer them concrete support intheir time of need. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented byinternational civil society.

To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:

• E-mail: Appeals@fidh-omct.org

· Tel and faxFIDH + 33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18 / +33 1 43 55 18 80

• Tel and fax OMCT + 41 (0) 22 809 49 39 / + 41 22 809 49 29

[1] Addameer (Arabic for conscience) is a Palestinian NGO that works to supportPalestinian political prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian prisonsoffering free legal aid to political prisoners, advocating their rights at thenational and international level, and working to end torture and otherviolations of prisoners' rights.

[2] On October 18, 2011, 477 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeliprisons as part of an exchange deal in which Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, whohad been abducted by Hamas in 2006, was released. Several of the freedPalestinian prisoners have been re-imprisoned since then.