FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

URL: internationallabordefense.org 

Email: cforild@gmail.com

Date: August 31, 2017

The Committee for International Labor Defense joins with the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, the French Communist Party, and the European United Left / Nordic Green Left of the European Parliament, in calling on Israeli authorities to release field researcher and human rights defender Salah Hamouri, 32, who has received a six month administrative detention order.

Hamouri, a Palestinian-French dual citizen was arrested in a pre-dawn raid on his home last Wednesday, August 16, 2017, by the Israeli army. 

The Israeli state’s practice of arbitrary detention is a grave violation of international laws and human rights standards, particularly articles 78 and 72 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which state that an accused individual has the right to defend himself or herself. Hamouri’s administrative detention also violates article 66 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the basic standards of fair trial.

This case is not simply the arrest of an individual. It is part of a systematic policy of oppression and exploitation on the part of the Israeli state against the Palestinian people, and as such, it should not be tolerated by the working people of occupied Palestine, who are the basis of their society and economy.

We join with organizations, activists, and parliamentarians across Europe and the Middle East who are mobilizing to demand Hamouri's freedom and to pressure the French government to take action on this case. 

The Committee for International Labor Defense urges French president Emanuel Macron and European officials to act now to demand Hamouri’s release. 

The Committee for International Labor Defense holds the Israeli state accountable for the safety and good health of Salah Hamouri, and the hundreds of other Palestinian political prisoners held at Al-Moskobyeh and other prisons in occupied Palestine. 

Finally, we call on organized labor in the US and worldwide to join forces in international labor defense of all political prisoners held by the Israeli state, including the hundreds of imprisoned children, and Salah Hamouri and his comrades.

Signed,

THE COMMITTEE FOR INTERNATIONAL LABOR DEFENSE

Please sign the petition to Free Salah Hamouri