French MEP Rima Hassan came under fire at the European Parliament on Tuesday after an Israeli flag was removed from a display commemorating the victims of the October 7 massacre, with the EU flag placed alongside it also falling to the floor.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola addressed the incident in the chamber, saying she viewed the allegations against Hassan “very seriously.”
“A member of this house was recorded allegedly damaging an exhibition commemorating the victims of the terrorist attack carried out in Israel on October 7,” Metsola said. “We are treating this matter very seriously, and all appropriate measures provided for under our procedures are already being taken, while preserving the right of the person concerned to be heard.”
According to a European Parliament source, Hassan will be required to provide an explanation to Metsola, who will decide whether disciplinary measures should be taken against her.
A Parliament spokesperson said the incident “was documented and is currently being examined by the European Parliament’s services.” Hassan’s office confirmed that the French-Palestinian lawmaker, who represents the far-left France Unbowed party, or LFI, removed the Israeli flag but denied accusations by several political opponents that she had trampled it.
According to her office, as Hassan left the area of the exhibition, “Rima Hassan removed the Israeli flag from its stand. The European Union flag, which was attached to the same structure, then fell accidentally as a result of the loss of balance. No flag was trampled on or damaged.”
Her office said the act was intended as a protest against what it called “the ongoing genocide being committed by the Israeli government,” but insisted it “was in no way directed at the people whom the event was intended to honor, nor at their memory.”
French MEP Rima Hassan
(Photo: Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola
(Photo: AFP )
French conservative MEP François-Xavier Bellamy said Monday that he had heard testimony that Hassan “knocked down the flags of Europe and Israel” outside the hall where an event commemorating the October 7 attack was held.
He described the incident as “a form of complicity with those who seek, including within Europe, to reimport the antisemitic hatred that marked the darkest hours in the history of our continent.” Bellamy also published a photograph showing the Israeli and EU flags lying on the floor after the incident.
However, footage publicly showing Hassan herself knocking down the flags has not been released. Renew Europe MEP Nathalie Loiseau also sharply criticized Hassan. “Rima Hassan tramples an Israeli flag in the European Parliament. October 7 is in two days. LFI has hit rock bottom in indecency,” Loiseau wrote on X.
From Gaza flotillas to arrest in France
Hassan, 34, is a French-Palestinian lawyer who was born in the Neirab refugee camp in Syria and moved to France as a child.
The Palestinian issue has been at the center of her public and political activity, and in recent years she has become one of Israel’s most outspoken critics in the European Parliament. She has accused Israel of “apartheid” and “genocide” in Gaza, backed boycott and sanctions initiatives against the country and called for boycotts of international companies over their activities in Israel.
Rima Hassan deported from Ben Gurion Airport, February 2025
Her confrontations with Israeli authorities have repeatedly resulted in her being denied entry or deported. In February 2025, Israel barred Hassan from entering the country when she arrived as part of a European Union delegation, and she was sent back from Ben Gurion Airport.
In June of that year, she joined a flotilla bound for Gaza, was detained after the Israeli Navy took control of the vessel and was deported again. In October 2025, Hassan participated in the Sumud flotilla to Gaza and was deported from Israel for a third time.
In recent months, Hassan has also faced legal trouble in France. Paris police arrested her on suspicion of supporting terrorism over a post quoting Kozo Okamoto, one of the perpetrators of the 1972 Lod Airport massacre, in which 24 people were killed.
In the post, which was later deleted, Hassan quoted remarks in which Okamoto portrayed Palestinian “resistance” as a duty as long as oppression continued. During her detention, several grams of a synthetic drug were found in her bag, and the investigation was expanded to include suspicions relating to its possession and transportation.
Earlier, in December 2024, a complaint was filed against Hassan in France over a text in which she compared the ability of French-Israeli citizens to serve in the IDF with what she described as the right of French-Palestinians to join the “Palestinian armed resistance.”
A Jewish organization that filed the complaint argued that the statement amounted to support for terrorism. Hassan, for her part, said she had condemned “Hamas war crimes” alongside her criticism of Israel.