Palestinian lawyer-activist Salah Hammouri deported to France

Israel said it deported a Palestinian lawyer and activist to France early on Sunday, claiming he has ties to a banned militant group, despite objections from the French government.

The expulsion of Salah Hammouri underscored the fragile status of Palestinians in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, where most hold revocable residency rights but are not Israeli citizens.

It also set up a possible diplomatic spat with France, which had repeatedly appealed to Israel not to carry out the expulsion.

“I'm happy to announce that justice was served today and the terrorist Salah Hammouri was deported from Israel," Israel's interior minister, Ayelet Shaked, announced in a videotaped statement. He was set to land in Paris just before 10 a.m. local time.

Hammouri was born in Jerusalem but holds French citizenship.

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Israel says Hammouri is an activist in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group that it has labelled a terrorist organisation.

He has worked as a lawyer for Adameer, a rights group that assists Palestinian prisoners that Israel has banned for alleged ties to the PFLP.

He spent seven years in prison after being convicted in an alleged plot to kill a prominent rabbi but was released in a 2011 prisoner swap with the Hamas militant group. He has not been convicted in the latest proceedings against him.

Israel, however, claimed he continued his activities with the banned group and placed him last March in administrative detention — a status that allows Israel to hold suspected militants for months at a time without charging them or putting them on trial.