The Palestinian issue and the war in Gaza are expected to become focal points in the upcoming session of the European Parliament, following the recent elections which brought several surprises, including a right-wing victory in both France and Germany, and the election of Rima Hassan, a French woman of Palestinian descent, who is the talk of political circles.
Who is Rima Hassan? Born in 1992 in Syria at the Nairab camp, the largest refugee camp in Syria, Rima's family hails from the village of Al-Birwa east of Akka and settled in Syria after the Nakba. When she turned ten, Rima and her family moved to France, where she obtained her citizenship at the age of 18.
Rima studied international law at the Sorbonne University and later founded the "Refugee Camps Observatory" (OCR), aimed at raising awareness about the conditions of people living in refugee camps. In 2023, she was named by Forbes as one of the "40 Remarkable Women."
In a media interview, Rima revealed that she faced threats and racism because of her Palestinian origins, vowing to carry her cause to the European Parliament. Due to her stance on the Gaza war, she became a topic of discussion in French political circles after labeling the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip as "genocide," asserting that the armed Palestinian factions are "doing legitimate work." This position attracted criticism, leading French media personality Arthur to accuse her of supporting "terrorism" and "anti-Semitism."
Furthermore, Rima was accused on social media of calling for the destruction of Israel for using the slogan "From the river to the sea," but she clarified in several media appearances that this slogan is unrelated to Hamas or the ongoing war. On April 23, the judicial police summoned Rima Hassan for questioning regarding alleged "glorification of terrorism."
In the 2024 European elections, Rima Hassan joined the list of the "La France Insoumise" party, securing the seventh position. She began her candidacy speech with verses from the famous poem "Who am I, without exile?" by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. Alongside Rima Hassan's victory, the left-wing "La France Insoumise" party won eight seats in the European Parliament, finishing fourth with 8% of the vote.
