French Minister Delegate François-Noël Buffet says he does not rule out removing French nationality from MEP Rima Hassan of La France Insoumise (LFI) if she were to be found guilty of apologising for terrorism.
Hassan has been in the eye of a storm after remarks about the terrorist attacks by Hamas on October 7, 2023, that killed about 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and triggered the war in Gaza, during which a large number of Palestinian civilians also died.
Buffet’s comments came after Hassan, born in Syria to Palestinian parents, had declared on Sud Radio on February 27: “Hamas has [undertaken] legitimate action from the perspective of international law.”
Asked if she viewed the Islamist group as a resistance movement, she said: “No, ‘resistance’ is subjective — people take sides.
“International law is the compass everyone must follow: Armed struggle is clearly legitimate in a colonial context, and that’s my stance.”
She then added that, despite the right of colonised peoples to resort to armed struggle, there were limits.
“You do not have the right to take civilians hostage, you do not have the right to commit a number of the abuses as they were committed [during the October 7 attack]. I and my party have, nevertheless, very often recalled that these are indeed war crimes,” she added.
Despite that, for many, she had crossed a line.
“After such remarks, made on the day we learned of the death of a French hostage, the deprivation of Rima Hassan’s nationality is necessary,” Réconquete MEP Marion Maréchal said on X.
In response to Maréchal, Buffet told on radio station Europe 1 on February 27 that he did not rule out withdrawing nationality if Hassan were to be convicted.
“French nationality cannot be kept by someone who disputes the reality of the facts on a daily basis,” he asserted.
On the same day, interior minister Bruno Retailleau said he had “referred these remarks, which constitute an apology for terrorism, to the Paris Public Prosecutor”.
He condemned Hassan’s comments as “utterly unacceptable”, stating on X: “Hamas is a terrorist organisation that flagrantly violates international law — whether by killing hostages, carrying out attacks, spreading anti-Semitic hatred, or calling for the destruction of a state.”
Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), said on X: “these propaganda remarks from a terrorist organisation are an insult to the memory of all the victims of October 7!
“Rima Hassan’s rhetoric has only one goal: to legitimise, deny, or minimise Hamas’ atrocities. Scandalous and unacceptable!” he added.
Renaissance MP Prisca Thévenot called Hassan “a disgrace to France and an enemy of our values!”
Socialist MP Jérôme Guedj predicted that “the repugnant remarks” made by the LFI MEP “will go without condemnation by her party”.
He added: “I stand by my position: The Socialists have nothing left in common with them.”
In April 2024, when she was a candidate on the LFI list for the European elections, Hassan was summoned by the police as part of an ongoing investigation for allegedly “glorifying terrorism” when she was said to have claimed that Hamas carried out legitimate action against Israel.
She has also been regarded as controversial in Israel and on February 24 she was barred from entering the country. That came after Israeli interior minister Moshe Arbel said Hassan was working to “promote boycotts against Israel”.
Hassan has taken part in boycott campaigns, advocated for penalties against the state of Israel and openly called for a veto businesses that operated in Israel.
"I am anti-Semitic, I don’t give a damn!" — The daughter of two hard-left French MPs has been arrested for antisemitism and glorifying terrorism, and she appears to have no regrets. https://t.co/m91KCvkhUh
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 18, 2024
