Controversy in the European Parliament: Rima Hassan accused of toppling the European and Israeli flags

At the sight of an Israeli flag displayed in the corridors of the European Parliament, next to that of the EU, did LFI MEP Rima Hassan, known for her pro-Palestinian activism, make a gesture of annoyance? This is what his colleague LR François-Xavier Bellamy accuses him of this Monday, during a solemn speech in the Chamber. According to him, while the blue and white emblem of the Hebrew State had been installed in commemoration of the massacres of October 7 (nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed that day by Hamas), the elected official “overturned” the two standards, supporting photo published on social networks. A version that would be corroborated by eyewitnesses as well as video surveillance images of Parliament, according to the entourage of the elected LR.

While waiting for light to be shed on this gesture, François-Xavier Bellamy called for “sanctioning without delay” the Insoumise, whose behavior he considers “scandalous” in two respects. “Whatever way we look at the situation in the Middle East, toppling the European flag inside the European Parliament is obviously an indignity,” said the person close to Bruno Retailleau. Even worse in his eyes: attacking the Israeli flag a few days before the third anniversary of “the largest anti-Semitic massacre of our century, committed by Islamist terrorists”. A way, to hear him, of showing himself to be “complicit” with those who, “including in Europe, seek to re-import the anti-Semitic hatred which has caused the worst hours in the history of our continent”.

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If Rima Hassan has not yet reacted, the episode adds to the long standoff between her and François-Xavier Bellamy. Often singled out for her ambiguity on the actions of Hamas, or even their legitimization, on October 7 as since the Israeli military response in Gaza - even if it means attracting accusations of advocating terrorism - the Mélenchonist muse regularly endures the wrath of the executive vice-president of the Republicans.

Their antagonism crystallized in July 2024: a few weeks after the European elections, MEP LR led the revolt against his candidacy for vice-president of the sub-committee on human rights. Furious, Rima Hassan then replied on X that if François-Xavier Bellamy and “his little friends” slept “well at night”, it was “not going to last”. Comments that he took as threats, to the point of filing a complaint, before she in turn retaliated by attacking him for defamation. A few months later, the complaint of the elected LR was dismissed, the prosecution judging the threat insufficiently characterized.

Beyond this duel, the controversy sparked a burst of reactions. LR MEP Céline Imart echoed an even more serious version: Rima Hassan would have been seen “trampling and vandalizing the flags”. “The mourning of the innocent serves as a backdrop for his happening. They are destroying our values ​​and our identity,” says the farmer from Tarn, in whom the scene only arouses “indignation” and “disgust”. At the National Rally too, we are also rebelling. “With LFI, even the memory of the victims of terrorism becomes an area of ​​provocation,” denounced MEP Fabrice Leggeri.

In the evening, the president of Crif, Yonathan Arfi, denounced, if the facts were confirmed, a “double indecency”. “Faced with the victims of the worst massacre of Jews since the Shoah, Rima Hassan openly chose the Hamas camp with this gesture. In the very confines of the European Parliament, she tramples on the Europe that elected her and its values,” he wrote on X, believing that it is not only “provocation”, but “desecration”.