Salah Hamouri has arrived in Paris. The Franco-Palestinian lawyer was born and lived in Jerusalem. But after spending several months in detention without charges being brought against him, Israel expelled him on Sunday, December 18, 2022.
Salah Hamouri lost his residency status in Jerusalem, a status enjoyed by the vast majority of Palestinian residents of the city. This is a specific identity card for Palestinians in East and precarious Jerusalem, recalls Jean-Paul Chagnollaud. Jean-Paul Chagnollaud is the president of the Institute for Research and Mediterranean Middle East Studies (Iremmo). For him, Israel uses this status to reduce the number of Palestinian inhabitants in this city that Israelis and Palestinians are fighting over.
Guilhem Delteil : Salah Hamouri is a resident of East Jerusalem. His support committee sees his expulsion as a gesture that is part of a policy towards Palestinians living in East Jerusalem. What is the Israeli policy on this part of the city ?
Jean-Paul Chagnollaud : It must be clearly understood that the Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem are subject to a very specific regime, which is the residence regime. These are people who have been at home for – many of them – generations, and who since the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem in 1967 have residency cards. These residency cards are granted by the Israeli administration in a completely arbitrary manner. We can very well take these cards from them, which forces them to leave East Jerusalem. Either to go to the West Bank or elsewhere. They are very precarious people.
There are approximately just over 800,000 inhabitants in all of Jerusalem. In East Jerusalem, there are 300,000 Palestinians and about 200,000 Israeli settlers, that is, Israelis who have settled in the settlements that Israel has built. The policy of the various Israeli governments, especially in recent years, and probably even more so with the one that is coming, is to make sure that the Palestinians of East Jerusalem leave.
The expulsion from Salah Hamouriapart from the particular case that it represents, is therefore indicative of the situation in the various neighborhoods of East Jerusalem about which we heard a lot about not so long ago, particularly in Sheikh Jarrah, where it there have been evictions of families in these neighborhoods which are close to the Old City.
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Because the Palestinian authorities are indeed denouncing this Israeli policy with regard to the Palestinians in East Jerusalem, whether through this type of expulsion, but also through a very restrictive policy with regard to building permits for Palestinian families in East Jerusalem.
Sure. There is a very strong idea in the allocation, or on the contrary the withdrawal of these cards: the notion of ” center of life “. The Palestinians must retain their center of life in Jerusalem. If they find a job outside East Jerusalem, for example, they may be removed from the list of residents, and therefore no longer able to live in East Jerusalem. If they marry someone who is not from East Jerusalem, it is the same: we will say that this center of life has moved. There are elements like that, very perverse, and which all have the same purpose: that of expelling the Palestinians.
It should not be forgotten that Israel regards Jerusalem as its capital. It was recognized by Donald Trump, but not by the international community. For the international community, East Jerusalem, including the Old City, is occupied territory. International law therefore applies there, and obviously this is what the State of Israel does not recognize.
What is worrying for the coming weeks is that the new Minister of Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, is the same one who, a few weeks ago, organized ” arabian hunts in Jerusalem. France is going to have to position itself beyond these lukewarm press releases that try to ignore what is happening in East Jerusalem.
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Precisely, France condemns the expulsion of Salah Hamouri. She had already taken a position on this file, asking Israel not to carry out this expulsion. Despite everything, this expulsion took place. What does this say about the Franco-Israeli relationship today?
We are still in this rather pusillanimous position [qui manque de courage, NDLR] from France, which condemns a particular case, but which is very reluctant to see the reality, namely that East Jerusalem is an occupied territory. Therefore, that’s what at least France should remember with much more force. And the facts accomplished by the Israeli governments have no legal value.
And France has always had a very ambivalent position for a few years. She condemns such and such a particular case, but she does not want to get to the bottom of things. She is far behind on this issue compared to what her position was a few years ago. In the time of Chirac, for example, or even of Sarkozy, there were much firmer postures. And I believe that it is necessary to have firm positions to prevent things from getting worse and worse. And I’m very much afraid that in the coming months there will be more and more willingness to expropriate, to prevent construction.
Has there been, in recent years, a shift in the French position on the Israeli-Palestinian issue?
I think there was a very clear French policy which was braced on international law, therefore on the lines that I have just mentioned. Since, let’s say the presidency of François Hollande, things have evaporated a bit. Hollande referred to international law, but his position was far behind that of Sarkozy, especially that of Chirac. That is to say, France, which sticks to positions of international law and says: ” It is an occupied territory and we must draw all the consequences “.
I think Emmanuel Macron is in an attitude of avoidance: avoidance of engaging on the issue, of really talking about things as they are. And obviously, when we don’t talk, we let a situation rot. When we have to resume the file, we will be in an even worse situation than the one we know today, which is already extraordinarily degraded.
Emmanuel Macron is preparing to travel to Jordan where he will have a bilateral meeting with King Abdallah II, who has a very important role in East Jerusalem as guardian of the holy places. Could the prospect of the formation of a new, very radical Israeli government lead us to put the Palestinian question back a little at the heart of international diplomacy and of this interview with Abdallah, to restore a little strength to the question Palestinian in Western diplomacy?
Unfortunately, we only talk about the Palestinian question when there are dramas, or when there is a deadly confrontation, as was the case a few weeks ago or last year, in August in Gaza. That’s the link, when we feel that something violent is happening, then there, we are obviously obliged to intervene, and that’s what will happen. I don’t doubt for a moment that during the meeting with Abdallah II of Jordan, we will talk about that, because indeed, there are a lot of fears.
And what is very interesting is that when you read the American press, the American administration puts a lot of pressure on the Israeli government today. She realizes that the ideological and political postures that are those of a certain part of the government, if not the entire government, are extremely worrying. It is a violation of international law that will continue and increase.
So I think France will have to position itself more firmly because I believe it’s in everyone’s interest, including Israel. In any case, first of all, the interest of peace, otherwise we are sure to have tragedies in the times to come. When you think that a character who was the one doing ” the hunt for Arabs ” a few weeks ago, became the Minister of Police and National Security… Everything is said in what is very likely to happen.
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