Rima Hassan

Rima Hassan Mobarak (; born 28 April 1992) is a French jurist and politician of Palestinian origin, born in the refugee camp of Neirab, near Aleppo, Syria.

Stateless, she arrived in France around the age of nine and settled with her family in Niort. After obtaining French nationality upon reaching adulthood, she earned a master's degree in international law from Panthéon-Sorbonne University.

Hassan then founded, in 2019, the 'Refugee Camps Observatory', an NGO dedicated to the study and protection of refugee camps worldwide. In 2023, she founded the 'Action Palestine France' collective. That same year, she joined La France Insoumise to contest the 2024 European Parliament election on Manon Aubry's list. She was elected to the European Parliament on 9 June 2024.

Early life and education

Rima Hassan Mobarak was born on 28 April 1992 in the Neirab camp, near Aleppo, Syria, the youngest of six children. Her mother, Nabiha (1958–2021), was a teacher, while her father, Ahmad, is a former mechanic in the Syrian Air Force. Her paternal grandparents, Palestinians originally from the village of Al-Birwa located near Acre, were forced into exile to Syria during the Nakba in May 1948. Her maternal grandmother, on the other hand, came from a prominent Syrian Kurdish family, the Hananu, and married a Palestinian refugee from Salfit; because her notable status clashed with his status as a Palestinian communist refugee, she chose to forsake her heritage and settle with him in the refugee camp.

Due to the unhappy marriage and an abusive relationship between her parents, Hassan's mother left the camp shortly after her birth and managed to immigrate to France, where she reunited with one of her sisters. She then spent eight years attempting to regain custody of her children and transfer them to France. Her mother ultimately managed to regain custody, and Hassan arrived in France around the age of nine. She settled in Niort, in the Deux-Sèvres department (district), with her mother, sister and four brothers.. She was elected to the Niort children's municipal council in 2003. She studied there at Ernest Pérochon Primary School.Centre Presse (Vienne), saturday 27 November 2021, p. 46, Bio express During this time, her mother did not work as a teacher, her original profession, but instead worked in restaurants to support her family. Hassan was targeted by hate speech during her schooling, including being called ethnic slurs like 'bougnoule' (wog) by her classmates. This led to a progressive loss of her native language, Arabic. She obtained a scientific baccalaureate from La Venise Verte High School in 2011.

Stateless until her adulthood, she obtained French nationality in 2010. As soon as she reached the age of majority, she sought to travel to Palestine via Tel Aviv, intending to "finally discover the land of her ancestors", but she was prevented from boarding at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

After these events, she pursued studies in law and obtained her bachelor's degree. For this, she spent two years at the University of Évry, then one year at the University of Montpellier, until 2014. She spent a year in Lebanon and completed her master's degree in 2016 at Panthéon-Sorbonne University (Paris 1). She focused on the legal comparison between South Africa and Israel in a master's thesis in international law on the issue of apartheid. According to her, obtaining her degree from Panthéon-Sorbonne was a source of great pride for her mother because the university's reputation would have been known even in the Neirab camp.

Career

Work

Hassan joined the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) in 2016, and after 18 months, she worked at the National Court of Asylum Law for six years until 2023. In 2019, she founded the NGO 'Refugee Camps Observatory'. The following year, Hassan participated in a roundtable organized by Emmaus for the World Refugee Day, on 20 June.

In 2022, the Interministerial Delegation for Reception and Integration dedicated a portrait to her as an "Inspirational Woman". That same year, she revisited the notion of "fraternity" from the French national motto in a podcast, along with other participants.

On 3 February 2023, she spoke at the French Senate for the symposium "Israel-Palestine: State of Affairs" organized by Paris Senator Esther Benbassa, in collaboration with ''L'Histoire'' and the French Research Center in Jerusalem. Her intervention addressed the issue of apartheid in Israeli society.

Following the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, amid the bombing of the Gaza Strip and the ground offensive launched by Israel, she terminated her contract with the National Court of Asylum Law and declined an advocacy position on migration issues offered by Amnesty International. Instead, she moved back to the Neirab refugee camp, "to be close to her people" and established the Action Palestine France collective on Telegram.

Until November 2023, she also advised L'Oréal on diversity and refugee integration issues.

Politics

In August 2023, Hassan participated in the summer days organized by The Ecologists, alongside the rapper Médine or the politician Clémentine Autain.

In the 2024 European elections, Hassan joined the list of La France Insoumise (LFI), where she was placed seventh, after also being approached to be on the list of The Greens but in a non-eligible position. She was elected. She explains her political commitment to LFI's list by the "urgent need to act politically now" regarding the situation in the Gaza Strip.

Political positions and activism

Living conditions of refugees and reception of migrants

In May 2020, Hassan expressed concern to Agence France-Presse about the health and security effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in refugee camps. In September 2020, she intervened within a collective and associations to call on the French government and local elected officials to mobilize to welcome refugees and thus help improve the humanitarian situation in the Mória camp in Greece.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Rima Hassan has long advocated the creation of a democratic bi-national state as a solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. She wrote in November 2023 that "there will be no two-state solution", and that "the solution is a democratic and secular bi-national state." Explaining herself later, she specified that she "dreams" of a bi-national state with peaceful coexistence of Palestinians and Israelis, and is in favor of the two-state solution, a solution defended by her party La France Insoumise.

She uses the pro-Palestinian slogan " from the river to the sea", which she argues "has existed for a very long time, and historically has absolutely nothing to do with Hamas." Deploring the fact that Palestinians who have been expelled from their homeland can no longer return there, she also uses the term "apartheid" to describe Israel's oppression of the Palestinians.

Gaza war

From the beginning of the Gaza war, Hassan has been critical of the actions taken by Israel. She stated in an online interview following the Hamas attack that it was "morally unacceptable to rejoice in the deaths of civilians", but refused the "political-media" injunction to "transform hisnatural empathy into support for the State of Israel." She condemned equally " Hamas' war crimes", "Israel's impunity", and the "genocide" of the Palestinians.

In 2024, Hassan described the October 7 attacks as "legitimate," leading French authorities to summon her for questioning on suspicion of advocating terrorism; her scheduled participation in the Forbes France Women’s Summit was subsequently canceled amid widespread public backlash. In August of that year, she reportedly appeared at a pro-Hamas rally in Amman, prompting approximately 50 members of the French National Assembly to petition the president of the European Parliament to revoke her parliamentary immunity. In December, she further stated that "any Franco-Palestinian must be able to join the Palestinian armed resistance," asserting that "the only thing that prevents you from considering it is the coloniality of the world."

On 24 February 2025, Hassan was denied entry to Israel as part of an EU-Palestine delegation, with Israeli authorities citing her support for anti-Israel boycotts.

In response to a question about whether Hamas was responsible for the kidnapping and killing of the Bibas family, Hassan tweeted "Kfir, Ariel and Shiri Bibas were killed by an Israeli strike. This had also been communicated and confirmed in November 2023", she further responded "would there have been Hamas and, in particular, the attacks of the 7th, if there had not been an illegal occupation and an illegal blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip for decades?", claiming that those were the reasons for their killing.

=Gaza Freedom Flotilla incident

=

On 1 June 2025, Hassan embarked the British-flagged yacht ''Madleen'', operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which sailed from Catania, Italy, in an attempt to breach Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip with a symbolic cargo of rice, baby formula and medical equipment. On board were other eleven activists, notably Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and Brazilian Thiago Ávila. Passengers described the voyage as non-violent direct political resistance seeking to draw global attention to Gaza's humanitarian crisis and to pressure governments to facilitate aid delivery.

In the early hours of 9 June 2025, Israeli naval commandos intercepted the ''Madleen'' in international waters approximately 185 km off Gaza's coast, deploying drones to encircle the vessel, spraying a white substance onto its deck, jamming communications, and ordering passengers to discard mobile phones before boarding. After boarding, the yacht was towed to Ashdod Port, where all twelve activists underwent medical examinations and were detained under Israeli law. Four activists, including Thunberg, agreed to voluntary deportation, while eight, among them Hassan and Ávila, refused to sign expulsion papers and remained in custody pending judicial hearings.

The European Parliament, led by President Roberta Metsola, engaged Israeli authorities to safeguard MEP Hassan. Spain summoned the Israeli ambassador in Madrid in protest, and Turkey condemned the interception as a breach of freedom of navigation. Human rights organisations such as Adalah argued the seizure in international waters amounted to unlawful detention or piracy.

After writing "Free Palestine" on a wall, Hassan was placed in solitary confinement, and decided to go on a hunger strike. She was ultimately expelled on 12 June and deported to Paris. The United Nations' special rapporteur Francesca Albanese and other international figures called for further flotilla missions to challenge the blockade and deliver essential aid to Gaza.

Controversies

In August 2023, ''Forbes'' ranked Hassan among the "40 exceptional women who have marked the year and who have made France shine internationally". In January 2024, this nomination was contested by Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France ("Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions"; CRIF) who accused her of "justifying the atrocities of 7 October" by Hamas and by the television presenter Arthur who accused her of "lauding terrorism". Following this controversy, ''Forbes'' canceled the awards ceremony. In response, Hassan filed a complaint against Arthur for defamation.

On 30 April 2024, Hassan was summoned by the police for lauding terrorism due to comments she made on social media in the winter of 2023; she claimed on that occasion that she was "serene" but then denounced "the political pressures aimed at compromising erfreedom of expression ta crucial political moment for the future of the French", referring to the European elections that year.

In May 2024, Hassan faced controversy for a message she posted on X (formerly Twitter) accusing the CRIF of having dictated to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Séjourné, a declaration concerning Israel.

In July 2024, The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL proposed Hassan as vice-president of the Human Rights Subcommittee. The day after this proposal, fellow MEP François-Xavier Bellamy ( The Republicans) used his connections to block her election to this position by accusing her of antisemitism. In response, she published several messages on X targeting Bellamy. Following these messages, Bellamy filed a complaint for "threats and incitement to commit a crime or offence against an elected official", believing that she had "named him for the vindictiveness of Islamist circles". The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, opened an investigation following Bellamy's complaint, suspecting Hassan of having breached the institution's code of conduct. In response, Hassan also filed a complaint against Bellamy for "public defamation and slanderous denunciation".

On 22 August 2024, deputies from the presidential Renaissance party announced their intention to appeal to the public prosecutor to have Hassan's parliamentary immunity lifted for having participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Amman, Jordan. They accused her of being "pro-Hamas": placards held during the demonstration paid tribute to the Hamas leader who was recently assassinated in Tehran. Hassan denied the accusations by describing this demonstration, which takes place every Friday, as a recurring demonstration in support of the Palestinians and which is not pro-Hamas. They also accused her of fuelling antisemitism, which she also denied. She stated that those who accuse her are "known for their position of supporting a genocidal regime that he isfighting and that hewill continue to fight with or without a mandate as an MEP."

On 23 January 2025, the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Franco‑Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, imprisoned in Algeria since November 2024 under national security charges. The motion passed overwhelmingly (533 votes for, 24 against, 48 abstentions). Hassan, as member for La France Insoumise, was among 24 MEPs who voted against the resolution. She justified her position as a measure against the "instrumentalisation" of Sansal's case by the political right and far‑right, arguing that the resolution had been politicised for ideological ends. Her vote, while all French MEPs outside GUE/NGL voted in favour of the resolution, was widely criticised in the French political class.

Cyberbullying

Amid the events of 2023 and 2024, Hassan became the target of a harassment campaign by a pro-Israel group of about thirty members. Her phone number was reportedly doxxed via Telegram, leading to an onslaught of death and rape threats directed at her. She was also sent imagery of Palestinians being brutalized.

Notes

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hassan, Rima
1992 births
Living people
21st-century French lawyers
21st-century women MEPs for France
21st-century Palestinian lawyers
French human rights activists
French people of Palestinian descent
French people of Syrian descent
French women activists
La France Insoumise MEPs
Naturalized citizens of France
Stateless people
Palestinian women activists
Palestinian human rights activists
Paris-Sorbonne University alumni
People from Niort
University of Montpellier alumni
Victims of cyberbullying
21st-century Palestinian women politicians
21st-century women lawyers
MEPs for France 2024–2029
Palestinian people of Kurdish descent
French people of Kurdish descent
French anti-Zionists
Palestinian people imprisoned by Israel
French people taken hostage
Kidnapped politicians
University of Évry Val d'Essonne alumni
Hunger strikers