French MEP Rima Hassan dismisses pro-Hamas accusations after attending rally in Jordan

Leftist politician says her rivals' claims are baseless as they demand an investigation and removal of her immunity

Rima Hassan speaking at a protest in Paris in May following an Israeli strike on a camp in Rafah, Gaza. AFP

Pro-Palestinian French MEP Rima Hassan has dismissed calls, led by politicians affiliated to President Emmanuel Macron, for an investigation after she attended a pro-Gaza rally in Amman, Jordan, where members of the crowd held pictures of slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

The calls come during a tense time in French politics, more than six weeks after a snap election that has left France with a caretaker government and political parties jostling for influence in parliament without a clear majority.

“I am not responsible for the fact that protesters show their support for Hamas,” Ms Hassan, a leftist politician, told The National. While she said she was aware that some pro-Hamas slogans were chanted during the march last week, she said she “took care not to display them” in her social media posts and attended the protest with a left-wing Jordanian human rights lawyer.

Pro-Gaza protests in Jordan, which are usually allowed to assemble near the Israeli embassy, have been largely organised by the Muslim Brotherhood and people linked with the group. Leftists and Jordanian nationalists are generally also among the crowds.

“I went to this demonstration, as I have always done, with the aim of supporting the popular mobilisations highlighting the situation in Gaza,” said Ms Hassan, referring to the continuing Israeli war against the enclave that has killed more than 40,200 people following the deaths of around 1,200 people in a Hamas-led attack in October.

More than 50 MPs from Mr Macron's political party Renaissance sent a letter this week to the Paris prosecutor describing Ms Hassan's participation in the rally as “barely concealed support for the terrorist organisation Hamas”, according to French magazine Le Point. They accused her of “encouraging racial hatred” and “glorifying terrorism”.

The MPs, including government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot, also wrote to European Parliament president Roberta Metsola asking that she lift Ms Hassan's immunity if an investigation is opened in France, in addition to imposing sanctions against her.

The European Parliament code of conduct stipulates that a request to lift the immunity of a sitting MEP can only be made by a “competent authority” in an EU state, which does not include lawmakers, or the European chief prosecutor. The European Parliament has been on summer recess since July 26, until September 2.

Should Ms Metsola receive a request to lift an MEP's immunity, she must first make an announcement during a plenary session. The next one is scheduled for September 16.

Then the legal affairs department conducts an investigation behind closed doors before giving its opinion to Ms Metsola, who submits it to a plenary vote. This is not an uncommon procedure. The most recent occurrence was in April with German politician Gunnar Beck.

French MP Caroline Yadan, who represents French constituents abroad including in a number of southern European countries and Israel, said on X that she had personally led the initiative to write the two letters.

“This poison of hatred cannot decently sit within our democratic institutions, at our expense and at the expense of our republican values. I will not let her go,” wrote Ms Yadan.

The National contacted Ms Yadan for comment but has not had a response.

Accusations of supporting Hamas are routinely levelled against Ms Hassan, a Syria-born Palestinian lawyer who moved to France as a child, since she gave an interview in November in which she said its actions were legitimate. She has responded by saying her comments were taken out of context and that the Hamas attacks constituted war crimes but they did not excuse the Israeli response.

“I have already communicated the UN resolutions a hundred times on which I based myself to speak of the legitimacy of armed action in a context of struggle for self-determination, and my lawyers are working with a court official on a complete transcription of this [November] interview,” Ms Hassan said.

Ms Hassan described the letters as “manoeuvres based on nothing” and part of a “battle of narratives that supporters of the Israeli regime want to win at all costs by criminalising the voices that warn about the fate of the Palestinians and ensure that they are silenced”.

“There is no legal basis for this request and those who made it are known for their position of support for a genocidal regime that I am fighting and that I will continue to fight with or without a mandate as a Euro MP,” added Ms Hassan.

Ms Hassan said she is currently visiting Jordan and Lebanon as part of a personal photographic project on Palestinian camps in the region following a contract with a publishing house signed on October 2, before the Hamas attacks against Israel. The photos will be exhibited in Tunis in October.