French police on Thursday arrested European Parliament member Rima Hassan in Paris on suspicion of supporting terrorism, according to the newspaper Le Parisien, which also reported that synthetic drugs were found in her bag.
Le Parisien said Hassan was also under suspicion of drug use, transport and possession after what it described as “several grams” of a prohibited substance were found in her bag. The newspaper said it was not clear which synthetic drug was involved or exactly how much of it police said she had. “European Parliament member Rima Hassan is in serious trouble,” the newspaper wrote.
The investigation began after a March 26 post in which Hassan referred to Kozo Okamoto, the Japanese terrorist convicted in Israel and sentenced to three life terms for leading the squad that killed 24 people in the attack at Lod Airport on May 30, 1972.
Okamoto was released in 1985 in the Jibril prisoner exchange, a swap in which Israel freed more than 1,000 prisoners for three IDF soldiers held in Lebanon. He has lived in Lebanon since.
In May 2025, the U.S. State Department announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest.
Hassan’s post about Okamoto was later deleted, apparently after she was summoned for questioning.
It was not the first time Hassan has faced accusations of supporting terrorism. In December 2024, a complaint was filed against her over a text in which she wrote that if French-Israelis are allowed to serve in the IDF and benefit from dual citizenship, then every French-Palestinian should be allowed to join what she described as the Palestinian armed resistance, whose legitimacy, she said, is recognized in UN resolutions concerning the right of peoples to self-determination.
Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament and a prominent critic of Israel, has tried to enter Israel three times and was expelled each time.
The first time was in February 2025, when Israel barred her entry while she was aboard a flight from Brussels. She was deported from Ben Gurion Airport after landing with a European Union delegation.
In June that year, Hassan took part in a flotilla to Gaza, was detained and deported again. In October, she participated in the Sumud flotilla and was expelled from Israel for a third time.
Hassan was born in the Palestinian refugee camp of Neirab in Syria and identifies herself as Palestinian.
Israeli officials have accused her of, among other things, running a campaign in support of Hamas. Hassan, for her part, has said she also condemned what she described as Hamas war crimes.
The Diaspora Affairs Ministry has previously said Hassan publicly called for boycotts of commercial companies operating in Israel, took part in initiatives to boycott the country and published content encouraging sanctions against it.
Among other statements, she accused Israel of practicing apartheid, comparing it to South Africa’s former system, and called for a full boycott. In September 2024, she called for a boycott of the Carrefour supermarket chain over its activities in Israel. In 2025, she also voiced support for a boycott of Starbucks, saying the company was “complicit in the genocide in Gaza.”