Newly elected French MEP participates in pro-Hamas demonstration in Jordan

On a trip to Jordan last week, new French member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan participated in a pro-Hamas demonstration in Amman, according to a report in weekly magazine Le Point. At the end of April, when she was not yet elected to the European Parliament, Hassan  was questioned by the judicial police as part of an investigation into “apology for terrorism”. Questioned by a media, she agreed that ‘’Hamas was waging a legitimate war".

The demonstration was in tribute to Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas assassinated on 31 July in Tehran, in an attack attributed to Israel.

Rima Hassan is a member of the extreme-left ‘La France Insoumise’ (France Unbowed) party and was elected to the European Parliament in the June EU elections. Little-known before being selected on the party’s list for the European elections,  she has since sparked much controversy for her radical stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At the end of April, when she was not yet elected to the European Parliament, Hassan  was questioned by the judicial police as part of an investigation into “apology for terrorism”. Questioned by a media, she agreed that ‘’Hamas was waging a legitimate war.’’

She posted images of the pro-Hamas demonstration in the Jordanian capital on Instagram  with the following caption : “Every Friday, protest day after prayer”.

In the demonstration, several placards brandished by the crowd could be seen paying tribute to Haniyeh. Demonstrators also wore the green headband of Hamas, worn by the October 7 terrorists, and a banner of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

Ultra-left activist Taha Bouhafs, a candidate in the 2017 legislative elections for La France Insoumise, also indicated on social networks that he was present at the demonstration. A close friend of Rima Hassan and having accompanied her on previous trips to Tunisia and Algeria, the activist posted videos in which the crowd can be clearly heard chanting slogans.

Syrian journalist and writer Omar Youssef Souleymane translated one of them for Le Point. “The demonstrators are chanting “Labaika y a Aqsa” which means, “We’re coming, O Aqsa”. It’s a very common slogan among Islamists, meaning that they are arriving to save Jerusalem’s sacred mosque by liberating it from the Jews”, he told Le Point.

On the posters in tribute to Haniyeh, he added, we can read “a Koranic verse often displayed by Islamists to pay tribute to their martyrs, such as Ahmed Yassine, founder of Hamas” assassinated in 2004. According to Omar Youssef Souleymane, consulted by Le Point, Rima Hassan and Taha Bouhafs took part in a gathering of extremists.

Faced with the outcry provoked by the weekly magazine report, Hassan said that her “presence at these regular demonstrations was in no way an endorsement of Ismail Haniyeh or Hamas”, adding: “Friday demonstrations in Amman are a gathering place for many Jordanians and are not exclusively political. It is inevitable that individuals with different perspectives will participate, including a variety of placards, some perhaps pro-Hamas, but the majority supporting the Palestinian cause more generally.”

French MP Caroline Yadan, a member of President Macron’s party, has called for Hassan’s  immunity to be lifted. In a post published on X, she said she was requesting sanctions against “the woman who constantly supports Hamas". She believes that Rima Hassan is a “poison of hatred” who “cannot decently sit in our democratic institutions, at our expense and at the expense of our republican values”.

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