Israel Seeks to Deport Palestinian Human Rights Journalist

After five months in an Israeli prison, Palestinian photojournalist Mustafa al-Kharouf faces deportation to Jordan, Al Jazeera reported Saturday.

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The photojournalist has been living in Jerusalem since 1999. However, throughout that time, 32-year-old Kharouf has struggled to gain permanent residency in Palestine, despite his father’s citizenship status as a Palestinian and his wife’s as a Jerusalemite.

After arriving in Jerusalem over 12 years prior, his parents tried to meet all the requirements demanded by immigration policies in order to win “legal status” as Palestinians within the city. Yet still, their then-18-year-old son was refused residency papers. When Kharouf tried again in 2014 and 2016, he was again refused for “security reasons.”

Adi Lustigman, Kharouf's attorney, said, "He had an interim order during some periods, but the rest of the times he has just managed, like many other stateless and status-less Jerusalemites do.”

Kharouf and Lustigman believe the rejection may be due to his work as a journalist, documenting human rights abuses. Then, when Kharouf objected to the Israeli ministry’s decision, he was arrested and imprisoned. Now he faces deportation, however dozens of international rights groups have jumped to his assistance, urging state authorities to grant him residency.

Amnesty International’s Jerusalem director, Saleh Hijazi, said, “[Kharouf] must be released immediately and granted permanent residency in East Jerusalem so he can resume his normal life with his wife and child.

"The arbitrary detention and planned deportation of Mustafa al-Kharouf reflect Israel's long-term policy to reduce the number of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, while denying them their human rights," he said, calling the Israeli authorities' decision "cruel and illegal."

Lustigman said that bringing awareness to the case could be Kharouf’s last chance to win his right to residency.

"We hope that public opinion, press interests, and NGO actions would have a certain weight and be of help," he said.