Rima Hassan, the French MEP for La France Insoumise, has been accused of throwing the European and Israeli flags to the ground at a European Parliament exhibition marking the 7 October massacres.
The allegation was made on Monday October 5 by François-Xavier Bellamy, a French MEP for Les Républicains and a vice-president of the European People’s Party.
In the chamber in Strasbourg, and again on X, he said that “this evening, at a commemoration of October 7, in front of the photographs of the victims, Rima Hassan threw the European flag and the Israeli flag to the ground.”
He published a photograph of the two flags on the floor and called for her to be “sanctioned without delay”.
Bellamy described the gesture as an “indignity”.
Whatever one’s view of the Middle East, he said, overturning the European flag inside the Parliament was unacceptable.
He called 7 October “the greatest antisemitic massacre of our century, committed by Islamist terrorists” — about 1,200 people were killed that day by Hamas — and said such an act made one “complicit” with those who, “including in Europe, seek to import once again the antisemitic hatred that made the worst hours of our continent’s history”.
His office told Le Figaro that eyewitnesses had seen the scene and that the Parliament’s cameras would corroborate it. No recording had been released by Monday night.
Ce soir, à l’occasion d’une commémoration du 7 octobre, devant les photos des victimes, @RimaHas a jeté à terre le drapeau européen et le drapeau israélien. Le message est parfaitement clair. La condamnation doit l’être aussi. pic.twitter.com/bBUe0eJPuN
— Fx Bellamy (@fxbellamy) October 5, 2026
In a reaction to Brussels Signal, a spokeswoman of the European Parliament acknowledged that “the incident was registered and is being investigated”
Other MEPs joined the condemnation. Pina Picierno, a vice-president of the Parliament, said in a video filmed among the photographs that Hassan had “profaned” the exhibition, “trampling the flags of Israel and the European Union”, and spoke of “antisemitism without restraint”.
Céline Imart, a French EPP member, said several people had seen Hassan “trampling and vandalising” the flags, and that the mourning of the innocent had been used as the setting for a stunt.
Hildegard Bentele, the German chair of the EU-Israel delegation, did not name Hassan but wrote that “knocking down the EU and Israeli flags at our commemoration exhibition does nothing to ease that suffering” and that “remembrance deserves respect”.
Nicola Procaccini, co-president of the European Conservatives and Reformists, also denounced the incident.
“There are moments when even the deepest political disagreements must give way to basic human decency. A memorial to innocent people murdered on 7 October is a place for dignity and remembrance, not provocation. What happened is disgraceful, and behaviour of this kind inside the European Parliament cannot simply be ignored. There must be consequences,” Procaccini said.
ECR Group Co-Chair Patryk Jaki said: “The radical Left has long been undermining standards in Europe.”
Pina Picierno, Vice-President of the European Parliament and MEP for Renew said that Hassan chose ” five minutes of fame over basic decency, turning the setup of a European Parliament exhibition honoring the victims of October 7 into a photo opportunity for the cameras she brought along”.
She said it was “an endless disgrace”.
MEP @RimaHas once again chooses five minutes of fame over basic decency, turning the setup of a European Parliament exhibition honoring the victims of October 7 into a photo opportunity for the cameras she brought along.
Not even the victims’ photographs can deter her from… pic.twitter.com/6Qv8JlYnxH
— Pina Picierno (@pinapic) October 5, 2026
The European Jewish Congress said it was “appalled” by the reports.
“If confirmed, this goes far beyond political disagreement or provocation. These flags formed part of a memorial to the victims of the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and to those abducted by Hamas. To deliberately interfere with such a memorial, on the eve of the anniversary of the attacks, would show a profound contempt for their memory and for the suffering of their families.”
It continued to state, “That such an incident is alleged to have taken place inside the European Parliament makes it all the more serious”.
And called on the Parliament to establish exactly what happened, make the relevant evidence public and, if the allegations are confirmed, take appropriate disciplinary action.
We are appalled by reports that MEP Rima Hassan knocked down the Israeli and European flags displayed at the European Parliament as part of an exhibition honouring the victims and hostages of the October 7 massacre.
If confirmed, this goes far beyond political disagreement or… pic.twitter.com/11XSTxANKW
— European Jewish Congress (@eurojewcong) October 6, 2026
Italian newspaper Il Giornale reported that Hassan, who sits with The Left, had objected to the display as a “one-sided” account of October 7.
She had not, in the accounts published by Tuesday morning, issued a direct reply to Bellamy’s accusation.
Neither Hassan nor the spokespeople of The Left group she is part of in the European Parliament reacted to questions by Brussels Signal at the time of publication.
Hassan, a French-Palestinian lawyer elected on the LFI list, is already a familiar figure in these rows.
She was detained by Israel in 2025 after joining a Gaza-bound aid boat, and has previously clashed with Bellamy, who blocked her proposed election as a vice-chair of the human rights subcommittee.
No sanction had been announced by the Parliament presidency on Tuesday.
French Minister Delegate François-Noël Buffet says he does not rule out removing French nationality from left-wing MEP Rima Hassan if she were to be found guilty of apologising for terrorism. https://t.co/LKrT5mZQ0J
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) February 28, 2025
