Salah Hamouri
Salah Hamouri photographed by Alain Bachellier
by Jonathan Kuttab
Salah Hamouri is a Palestinian human rights lawyer, from Jerusalem, who has just been informed he will be deported to France in 3 days. He has appealed this decision, but the hope that Israeli court would provide him with justice is minimal. Salah is a lawyer with Addameer, a Palestinian human rights organization concerned with prisoners’ rights. He is currently in prison under administrative detention. Like more than 800 other Palestinians, he is kept in jail, on the basis of “secret evidence” without any charges or trial. Just because some Israeli official considers it necessary “for public safety and security” that he be kept in jail, for 6 months’ (renewable indefinitely). Salah has been in administrative detention now for about 9 months, and he is convinced it is because of his human rights advocacy. The fact that the organization he worked with, Addameer, is one of the six civil society organizations Israel declared to be a terrorist organization is undoubtedly part of the “secret evidence” used to justify his detention, and threatened deportation before Israeli courts and tribunals.
Salah’s case is noteworthy, however, for additional reasons: First is that he has been stripped of his Jerusalem residency because of “secret evidence” (again), showing that he has failed in his “duty of loyalty” to the state of Israel which has occupied and annexed East Jerusalem, where he resides. This bizarre charge would have been hilariously ridiculous if it were not so serious. What “duty of loyalty” is owed by Palestinians to their occupiers? For Israel, This goes beyond the need to punish resistance to the occupation, by requiring the occupied people to have a “duty of loyalty” under threat of losing their residency, and facing deportation!
What makes this case particularly ominous is the new Israeli government with its far-right agenda and the open racism and hostility of some of its components, who are being given key positions of authority over the lives of Palestinians both in Israel, Jerusalem, and the rest of the occupied territories. It is no secret that these newly empowered racists have made it clear that their ideology and agenda views Palestinian Arabs as a threat to the Jewishness of the state who need to be forcibly deported and removed from the state altogether. Like their mentor and hero Meir Kahana, they hold this view for Israeli Arab citizens in Israel and not just for West Bankers. Now they are in a position of power to implement their program.
Under Israel’s system, such radical violations of human rights and international law are usually introduced slowly, with legal and judicial acceptance and justification. The courts play their role by presenting what looks like some independent restraining element of review and examination, but then approve the measures; Zionist supporters abroad try to downplay these activities and seek to justify them as either temporary or needed for security. They also work hard to shield Israel from any scrutiny or accountability for such blatant actions, which often go against their own professed values. From torture, to house demolitions, to settlement activities, to administrative detention, to annexation of territory, deportations and extra-judicial killings, the pattern is always the same: Each of these activities were undertaken gradually, with trial balloons to test public reaction, and with judicial complicity and justification, all the while resisting any accountability or sanctions, and leading to a feeling of impunity. Every effort is made to avoid any external pressure, or involvement by any international body or court.
Eventually, the effort to justify the actions is abandoned, and is replaced by strenuous attempts to prevent any sanctions or accountability, branding such efforts as anti-semitism, or biased and unfair targeting of Israel.
It is therefore important to carefully note what happens with Salah Hamouri. His bizarre case may well be the first step towards mass withdrawal of residency status as well as citizenship, leading to a forcible deportation of Palestinians. We need to create and demand sufficient international reaction and pushback before this too becomes a regrettable but acceptable norm of how Israel behaves towards the Arabs under its control.
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Preach Palestine 2022
Now Is the Time!
Friends of Sabeel North America is calling on Christian leaders across the U.S. to commit their congregations to Preach Palestine this Advent season.
Be it an entire service or a single prayer, we are asking you to once again Preach Palestine and lift up the Palestinian people such that they would come to experience the joy, justice, and peace of Christ's liberating reign, as a very real light in the present darkness.
Click the link below to learn more and find resources!
World Cup 2022
#SoccerNotCells
It's time to rise up in support of imprisoned Palestinian children missing out on the simple pleasure of watching the World Cup at home with their families.
Please keep tweeting #SoccerNotCells! We are continuing our tweetstorm with a new pre-written tweet of the week to send out! (Reminder: You must be logged-in first):
Raise the Flag
Palestinian, Arab and international sports fans are taking action to stand for Palestine during the 2022 World Cup. Join in actions to raise the Palestinian flag!
Raise the Palestinian flag in your home, window, stadiums and viewing parties!
Wear a Palestinian flag or kuffiyeh armband at your World Cup events
Share campaigns for justice in Palestine and join the social media storms for #RaiseTheFlag and #RaisePalestineFlag
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We invite you to join us in the following events and activities:
December 11: Online
December Voices From the Holy Land Online Film Salon
We travel, take tours, and make pilgrimages to the Holy Land with a variety of motivations: to see the antiquities that form a basis for Western culture, experience different cultures, and worship sacred sites. We are welcomed and guided by people who live there. What does tourism today mean to them? What are the ethical, political, and personal implications of a journey to a place where holy sites are surrounded by 30-foot-high concrete walls, soldiers with rifles patrol the streets, and residents live under the longest military occupation in modern history? Are there ways to be a traveler and meaningfully engage with all of the lived realities in the Holy Land while also honoring the basic tenets of our faiths? Three recent, short documentaries present a variety of voices, viewpoints, and visions of the Holy Land as offered by people living there today.
Watch the film for free at your convenience | Join the Q&A Discussion
Rifat Kassis: Palestinian Christian author, speaker, and human rights activist.
Sam Bahour: Ramallah-based American businessman and entrepreneur
Mae Elise Cannon: Executive Director, Churches for Middle East Peace
Michael Spath (moderator): Founder & Executive Director of Indiana Center for Middle East Peace
Register here: tinyurl.com/VFHL-December2022
Watch the Trailer: tinyurl.com/VFHLCome-SeeTrailer
This event is Co-Sponsored by: Friends of Sabeel North America, Churches for Middle East Peace, Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace, Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service, and Indiana Center for Middle East Peace
SUPPORTER Organizations: Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ♦ Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace ♦ Quaker Palestine Israel Network ♦ Unitarian Universalist for Justice in the Middle East ♦ Indiana Center for Middle East Peace ♦ Disciples Palestine-Israel Network ♦ Virginia Coalition for Human Rights ♦ Mennonite Palestine Israel Network ♦ Friends of Sabeel North America ♦ Center for Jewish Nonviolence ♦ Episcopal Peace Fellowship Palestine Israel Network ♦ Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions – USA ♦ Northern New Jersey Jewish Voice for Peace ♦ United Church of Christ – Palestine Israel Network ♦
December 14: Online
Zoom Interview with Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh
(ICMEP Event) Dr. Michael Spath interviews Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, founder/director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History & Institute for Biodiversity Research at Bethlehem University (http://palestinenature.org).
Mazin has previously taught at the University of Tennessee, Duke University, and Yale University. He has published 130+ scientific papers on topics ranging from biodiversity to cancer. Mazin's books include "Mammals of the Holy Land"; "Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli Palestinian Struggle"; and "Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment."
1PM ET
Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, Jerusalem:
Weekly
Sabeel Prayer Service. Join Sabeel every Thursday (6pm Jerusalem) for online Bible Study, discussion, and prayer. Examine scripture in light of the ongoing realities confronting the Palestinian Church and the pursuit of Palestinian liberation.
Wave of Prayer. Subscribe to receive Sabeel's Wave of Prayer, enabling friends of Sabeel around the world to pray over issues of critical concern to the Holy Land on a weekly basis.
Kumi Now! (Week 49) Human Rights. On December 10, 1948 the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Each December 10 is Human Rights Day, in honor of that foundational text of modern human rights. Sadly, human rights abuses in Israel and Palestine have been well documented by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and other organizations for decades. And yet the violations continue. Here is what you need to know about these human rights abuses and what you can do so that together we can rise up and ensure that human rights are restored to all citizens in the occupied territory.