A French Palestinian born in Syria, she came back in June after spending three days in Israeli detention.
Hassan was involved in a maritime mission to deliver aid to Gaza, and during her detention, she initiated a hunger strike and was kept in solitary confinement.
The lawmaker has since become a symbol of European solidarity.
Clearly, the Israeli government can’t tolerate her. Haaretz reported that earlier this year, Moshe Arbel, the country’s interior minister, denied her entry as she “has ‘consistently worked to promote boycotts against Israel and made numerous public statements and social media posts’ against the country”.
It is painfully repetitive to hear pro-Israel commentators denounce leftist initiatives like aid flotillas as publicity stunts.
In a sense, they are right; however, activists use themselves to emphasise the seriousness of the situation in Gaza, hoping that their presence will both influence public opinion in the West and compel Western powers to act.
In a second, larger flotilla, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was also detained under highly questionable conditions. Israel also detained several Jews participating in the later flotilla, including activist David Adler and journalist Emily Wilder.
“I think it wasn’t just my participation, but I believe that the second flotilla—the first one was just one boat, the second one was 45 boats, with many, many European delegations and prominent European figures who are influential voices in their respective countries—I believe that this mobilisation of European citizens effectively put European states in a position where they had to be pressured, or at least maintain their support for Israel, even though we saw rhetoric that delegitimized or mocked the flotilla’s actions,” Hassan said in an interview with The Battleground.
“The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for example, called us irresponsible in the action we were taking, when in fact, we were taking this action because of their inaction,” Hassan added.
“So, I think that indeed, the citizens’ contribution to these actions helped maintain a balance of power with the states and ultimately forced them to be more vigilant about what Israel could do, because this time, it was also a question of the security and commitment of their own citizens. It was no longer just about the Palestinians versus Israel.”
Why do changing European attitudes about Palestine matter? For Hassan, it’s about both the past and the present.
“The European Union also bears a historical responsibility. In the Sykes-Picot Agreement, it was the British and French who helped to partition the region and place it under either French or British mandate,” she said, adding that European Antisemitism and fascism were also to blame for pushing European Jews toward the Zionist exodus to the Levant.
But there’s also the issue of the contemporary context. While Israel mainly receives substantial financial aid from the United States, Europe remains a significant player capable of addressing the situation directly.
“There is a complete refusal to sanction Israel in the same way that one could, for example, sanction Russia. And there is also a desire to repress. This is a European tendency to repress movements of solidarity with the Palestinian people,” Hassan said.
That’s why she is inspired by European protests in solidarity with Palestine. “What citizens can do is, of course, organise to resist, to pursue all the legal proceedings initiated in various countries to hold states accountable,” Hassan said.
“Legal proceedings have been initiated to hold the (European) Commission, as well as individual states, accountable for their efforts to prevent genocide, since all these states have signed and ratified the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide,” she pointed out. “They can also amplify mobilisations. This is what we are trying to do to maintain pressure on our decision-makers.”
Hassan added, “I think that Europeans are also becoming aware of the injustice done to the Palestinian people and Europe’s responsibility in this. And they understand that they have a role to play today as citizens in countering the policies that have been pursued for decades against the Palestinians and in support of the Israeli regime.”
“The fact that we’re all watching each other, that as French people we’re watching what’s happening in Spain, what’s happening in the mobilisations in Germany, what’s happening in the mobilisations in Italy, that also inspires us mutually,” Hassan stressed.
“The ‘Block Everything’ movement in France was also somewhat inspired by what happened in Italy,” she noted. “So I think there are really dynamics at play that are intertwined and mutually reinforcing. And that’s a very important element in maintaining pressure on European policies.”
As a member of La France Insoumise, Hassan is part of a left-wing movement that is not only opposed to centrist neoliberalism but also to the threat of the fascist right.
For the progressive MEP, it’s no surprise that these far-right movements, despite their historical Antisemitism, have made pro-Israel overtures.
For example, in October, British nationalist Tommy Robinson visited Israel at the invitation of Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli, well-known for his overtures to European fascist parties, such as Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland, and Spain’s Vox.
“Israel embraces France’s far-right, turning a blind eye to its Nazi past,” reads a CNN headline from March.
The illiberal Hungarian government, conversely, supports Israel in the ICC’s genocide case against the Jewish state and has been implicated in its exploding pagers operation in Lebanon. The coincidence of the two efforts speaks louder than words.
“These alliances between the far right and Israel ultimately reveal the true nature of Israel, and in particular what this Israeli regime is currently doing,” Hassan said.
“The left-wing parties that are resisting are in a very, very difficult situation, because they are indeed under immense pressure due to their commitment and their condemnation of the genocide in Gaza and the State of Israel. They must resist, like all parties throughout history that have been on the front lines, that have resisted, and that have paid a heavy price for that resistance.”
Getting the European Union to do the right thing for Palestine will be a challenge, she admitted, but the governing bodies have their work cut out for them.
“Our primary role, beyond the ceasefire, is really to ensure respect for the agreements that are already in force,” Hassan said. “We cannot, on the one hand, be on the 19th package of sanctions against Russia in response to the aggression suffered by Ukraine, and at the same time impose no sanctions against a state that has already caused at least 70,000 deaths and nearly 200,000 injuries in the Gaza Strip, and remain silent in the face of this. So that is the first battle.”
What will be harder to do in a world where Israel enjoys complete immunity from international law is “justice” for what has happened, which would mean Israeli decision makers, like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, going “before international courts”.
Europe has no choice but to pursue this path, Hassan said, as there is a “legal obligation for states that have ratified the Geneva Convention: to obtain justice for the Palestinian people and their rights”.
Rima Hassan is an activist and legislator in Europe. But she also offers a refugee perspective to the centre of the Western empire.
While the news about her has often focused on her participation in the flotilla, Hassan is still a lawyer at heart and believes Europe can and must use the tools it has to hold Israel accountable.
“What we need now is a European policy that is aligned with international law, with international conventions, and with the United Nations resolutions,” she said.
Photograph courtesy of The Left. Published under a Creative Commons license.
