Rima Hassan speaks during the ‘Union Populaire Convention’ in Villepinte, Paris. AFP

It is expected that the Palestinian issue and the war in Gaza will become the focus of attention of the European Parliament in its next session, after the recent elections brought several surprises with the right leading the results in both France and Germany, and the victory of Frenchwoman of Palestinian origin, Rima Hassan, who has become the talk of political circles.

Who is Rima Hassan?

Rima was born in 1992 in Syria in Al-Nairab camp, which is the largest refugee camp in Syria. Rima's family comes from the village of Al-Birwa, east of Akka, and settled in Syria after the Nakba. When she was ten years old, Rima left with her family for France, and obtained her citizenship when she turned 18 years old.

Rima studied international law at the Sorbonne University, and later founded the Observatory of Refugee Camps (OCR), which aims to spread awareness about the conditions of residents in refugee camps. Forbes magazine chose her in 2023 to be on the list of “40 Distinguished Women.”

She revealed during a media interview that she had been subjected to threats and racism because of her Palestinian origin, pledging to take her case to the European Parliament.

Because of its position on the Gaza war, it was the talk of French political circles, after it described the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip as “genocide,” considering that the armed Palestinian factions were “carrying out legitimate work,” which put it in the crosshairs of criticism, as a result of which the French media personality, Arthur, accused him of supporting “ Terrorism” and “anti-Semitism.”

Because of her use of the slogan “Palestine from the sea to the river,” activist Rima Hassan was also accused on social media of calling for the destruction of Israel, but she explained this in more than one media appearance by saying that this slogan has no connection to the “Hamas” movement on the one hand, nor to the ongoing war.

The judicial police summoned Rima Hassan on April 23 to interrogate her on the grounds of “glorifying terrorism.”

In the 2024 European elections, Rima Hassan joined “La France Insoumise (LFI) party”, where she ranked seventh. She began her candidacy speech with verses from the famous poem of the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, “Who am I, without exile?”

In addition to Rima Hassan's victory, the La France Insoumise (LFI) party won eight seats in the European Parliament, and came in fourth place after obtaining 8% of the votes.