French MEP Hassan under investigation over flag incident at 7 October commemoration

Hard-left French EU lawmaker Rima Hassan is facing an investigation after the Israeli and European Union flags were allegedly thrown to the floor at a commemoration for the 2023 Hamas attacks that set off the Gaza war. Hassan said the action was to denounce the "ongoing genocide by the Israeli government".

European Parliament president Roberta Metsola said she took "extremely seriously" the allegations made against Rima Hassan, a Palestinian-origin lawmaker with the hard-left France Unbowed ( LFI ) party, following an event Monday marking three years since the 7 October, 2023 attacks .

"A member of this house was filmed apparently damaging an exhibition commemorating the victims of the terrorist attack in Israel on October 7th," Metsola said in a statement on the incident.

"I want to underline that we take this extremely seriously and that all the appropriate steps according to our procedures are being taken, including the right of the person concerned to be heard," she told lawmakers in Strasbourg.

"The person concerned was seen allegedly throwing the flag of Israel to the ground, dropped a flagpole and the European Union flag was knocked down. Both flags were left lying on the ground before the member left the scene."

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Hassan's staff said in a statement she had explained the events shortly after the incident.

While leaving the exhibition venue, Hassan "removed the Israeli flag from its stand. The European Union flag, attached to the same base, then accidentally fell due to the loss of balance. Neither flag was trampled or damaged," according to the statement sent to French news agency AFP.

"Our action was part of denouncing the ongoing genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli government," but was "in no way aimed at the people this event sought to honour, nor at their memory," it added.

"It is entirely possible – as we did with our group – to commemorate the victims of October 7 without associating ourselves with the genocidal Israeli state," Hassan told the EU parliament on Tuesday.

Born in Syria, Hassan is a French-Palestinian jurist, activist, and politician. Since her election to the European Parliament in June 2024, Hassan has prompted debates on Palestine and led a campaign to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

Right wing French deputy Francois-Xavier Bellamy said that her act was "a form of complicity with those who – including within Europe – seek to re-import the antisemitic hatred that marked the darkest chapters of our continent's history."

Centrist French parliament member Nathalie Loiseau said on social media platform X: "Rima Hassan tramples on an Israeli flag at the European Parliament. October 7th is the day after tomorrow. LFI has plumbed the depths of indecency."

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called it "shameful, outrageous, but sadly not surprising. The desecration of the exhibition commemorating the victims of October 7 at the European Parliament by radical-left MEP Rima Hassan says above all how little respect she has for the very institution in which she serves," Saar wrote on X.

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In her statement Metsola went on to warn: "We cannot have actions that could make people fearful of speaking. We cannot have damage to property. And we cannot have attempts to intimidate rather than to debate.

"At a time of rising global antisemitism, we owe it to Europe's Jewish community to ensure that when they look to us they see that this is their House too."

Hassan was on a flotilla that attempted to reach Gaza last year and was among activists detained and later expelled by Israeli authorities.

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