French media outlets report that European Parliament member Rima Hassan has been detained in France on suspicion of "apology for terrorism," in a move that members of her left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) party claim aims to silence Palestine supporters. The detention highlights the escalating tensions in France over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the alleged use of legal measures against political dissent.
Le Parisien newspaper reported on Thursday that Hassan's detention is related to an investigation into a social media post referencing Kozo Okamoto, who participated in a deadly attack at Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport in 1972. Hassan had deleted the post on X, according to Le Parisien. Jean-Luc Melenchon, the founder of LFI, stated on social media that the detention pertains to a retweet from last month, writing, "So there is no longer parliamentary immunity in France. Intolerable." Additionally, Le Parisien and AFP reported that a small amount of "synthetic drugs" was found on Hassan when she was taken into police custody.
Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian lawyer and activist elected to the European Parliament in 2024, has been a prominent critic of Israel's military actions against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. She participated in a Gaza-bound flotilla intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters in October 2025. Her advocacy for Palestine has drawn criticism from pro-Israel groups and figures in France and internationally, reflecting the broader geopolitical friction surrounding the conflict.
Last week, Hassan was denied entry to Canada, where she was scheduled for meetings and speaking engagements, an act she described as censorship. In late March, Matthias Renault, a French politician from the far-right Rassemblement national party, alerted the chief prosecutor in Paris about Hassan's X post referencing Okamoto. Renault welcomed her detention on Thursday, writing on social media, "Finally the beginning of the end of impunity for the LFI MP!"
However, lawmakers and officials from Hassan's party condemned her detention. Sophia Chikirou, an LFI MP in the French National Assembly, asserted, "The French police and justice system are being used to intimidate those who support the Palestinian people." Mathilde Panot, an MP who heads the LFI delegation in the National Assembly, claimed that in President Emmanuel Macron's France, "the criminalisation of political opponents has reached a new level," urging an immediate end to what she called a relentless attack on fundamental rights.
Source: www.aljazeera.com