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Palestine Defenders Decry 'Intolerable' Arrest of French Politician Rima Hassan
"Once again, the offense of glorifying terrorism is being used to repress a Palestinian activist known worldwide for her fight against genocide," lamented one attorney.
Apr 02, 2026
Police in Paris apprehended and briefly detained European Parliament Member Rima Hassan Thursday on suspicion of "apology for terrorism"—an allegation critics slammed as "judicial harassment" aimed at silencing her outspoken criticism of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza and the French government's support for it.
Hassan, who represents the leftist La France Insoumise (LFI, or France Unbowed in English) party in the European Parliament, was summoned as part of an investigation by the National Center for Combating Online Hate (PNLH), Le Parisiene first reported.
The newspaper also reported that "a few grams" of a synthetic drug—possibly 3-MMC—were found on Hassan, allegations that sparked skeptical reactions.
PNLH is probing a since-deleted March 26 post on the social media site X in which Hassan referred to Kōzō Okamoto, a member of the Japanese Red Army who, along with two others, killed 26 people and wounded 80 more in the name of Palestinian liberation during a 1972 massacre at Lod Airport in Israel.
Hassan, a descendant of Palestinians ethnically cleansed from their homeland during the foundation of the modern Israeli state, was born in a refugee camp in Syria and emigrated to France as a child.
The Sorbonne-educated jurist was one of the leaders of the June 2025 Gaza Freedom Flotilla Madleen mission, along with climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and others. Hassan and others aboard the Madleen were intercepted by Israeli forces and arrested in international waters as they attempted to deliver food, children’s prosthetics, and other desperately needed supplies to Gaza’s besieged and starving people. Hassan said that she was beaten in Israeli custody.
While far-right and pro-Israel French lawmakers celebrated Hassan's detention and called for her to be stripped of parliamentary immunity, Palestine defenders condemned the arrest.
"Once again, the offense of glorifying terrorism is being used to repress a Palestinian activist known worldwide for her fight against genocide," said leftist lawyer Elsa Marcel. "While Israel bombs Iran and Lebanon and colonization accelerates in the West Bank, the French state continues to repress the voices fighting for the liberation of Palestine. Immediate release!"
LFI French National Assembly Member Gabrielle Cathala voiced her "full support for Rima Hassan" in a post on X.
"In violation of her parliamentary immunity, she is currently being held in custody for a simple tweet that had nothing to do with 'apology for terrorism,'" she wrote. "This judicial harassment must stop."
"If this is already happening, just imagine what would occur in the event of a vote on the Yadan Law," Cathala added, referring to a highly controversial bill critics say would criminalize anti-Zionism by conflating opposition to Israel with animus toward Jewish people, aligning with the dubious International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism.
Soutien à ma camarade et collègue Rima Hassan, en garde à vue pour un tweet, alors que le génocide à Gaza se poursuit et que les palestinien•nes subissent désormais un apartheid par le gouvernement d’extrême droite israélien.
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— François Piquemal (@francoispiquemal.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 6:51 AM
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the de facto LFI leader and a former European Parliament member, said on Bluesky: "The political police have once again summoned Rima Hassan for questioning regarding a retweet from March. Parliamentary immunity, then, no longer exists in France."
"It is intolerable," he added. "The Yadan Law was not passed—yet is it already being enforced?"
Hassan was previously summoned by authorities following a December 2024 complaint over social media posts, including one in which she asserted, “If Franco-Israelis are allowed to serve in the Israeli army while enjoying the gains of dual citizenship, every Franco-Palestinian must be able to join the Palestinian armed resistance, the legitimacy of which is recognized by [United Nations] resolutions on the right to self-determination of peoples."
Since she started speaking out against the Gaza genocide, Hasan has been subjected to online bullying, including death and rape threats and doxing.
Last week, Hassan was denied entry into Canada—where she was scheduled to speak at multiple conferences in Montréal and meet with left-wing pro-Palestine members of Québec's National Assembly—following concerns from the pro-Israel groups B’nai Brith Canada and the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs. Hassan attended the conferences remotely.
“The revocation of [Hassan's] travel authorization is part of a worrying trend of restricting freedom of expression and movement of political representatives," LFI said in a statement, "as well as part of a broader pattern of censorship affecting democratic debate."
Other Palestine defenders have been targeted by the French government, including Olivia Zemor, president of the advocacy group Europalestine, who last week was hit with a 24-month suspended sentence for "apology for terrorism" due to her support for Palestinian rights.
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As Trump Threatens NATO Exit, Starmer to Host 35-Nation Talks on Strait of Hormuz—Without US
"The unspoken implication of the focus on diplomacy is that if Trump walks away without reopening the strait and without a deal with Iran, then Tehran holds the cards," said one observer.
Apr 01, 2026
As President Donald Trump lambasts European allies over their reluctance to be dragged into his illegal war of choice against Iran and reportedly mulls leaving the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Wednesday that Britain will host talks involving 35 nations—but not the US—on reopening the Strait of Hormuz via diplomacy.
Starmer said the talks, a continuation of UK-French efforts to secure safe passage for ships in the key waterway—through which around a quarter of the world's oil transits—would bring together nations to "assess all viable diplomatic and political measures we can take to restore freedom of navigation, guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers, and to resume the movement of vital commodities."
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said Wednesday that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed to “enemies of this nation” and that the waterway is "firmly and dominantly" under its control, despite Trump's repeated claims that an end to the war is approaching.
Trump lashed out Tuesday at European leaders amid resistance tof the US-Israeli war on Iran, telling them to "go get your own oil" and calling them "cowards" who will "have to start learning how to fight" for themselves, because the US "won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us."
Trump's tirade came amid reports that France, Italy, and Spain have either banned US warplanes from their airspace or from using bases in their countries. Spain announced Monday that its airspace is off limits to US aircraft involved in the Iran war, which socialist Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and other officials in Madrid have condemned as illegal.
Italy also contends that the war on Iran is illegal and has denied US warplanes permission to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily before heading to the Middle East, while France on Wednesday refuted claims by Trump that it is preventing US military planes from flying over its territory.
The Telegraph reported Wednesday that Trump is seriously considering withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the alliance formed in 1949 to counter growing Soviet power in Europe, telling the British newspaper that NATO is "a paper tiger."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also weighed in on the matter, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity Tuesday evening that "we’re going to have to reexamine the value of NATO."
“If now we have reached a point where the NATO alliance means that we can’t use those bases, that in fact we can no longer use those bases to defend America’s interests, then NATO is a one-way street,” he added.
It is unclear how Trump would attempt to quit the alliance, a move that would require the unlikely approval of Congress. In 2023, lawmakers passed legislation requiring their permission to leave NATO—a direct response to Trump's previous threats to do so.
Responding to Trump's NATO remarks, Starmer said during a Wednesday press conference that the UK remains "fully committed" to the pact.
“NATO is the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen," the Labour leader asserted. “It has kept us safe for many decades."
"Whatever the pressure on me and others, whatever the noise, I'm going to act in the British national interest," Starmer continued. "And that's why I have been absolutely clear that this is not our war, and we're not going to get dragged into it. But I'm equally clear that when it comes to defense and security, and our economic future, we have to have closer ties with Europe."
Some critics have pushed back against Starmer's argument that it's not Britain's war, noting that his government is allowing US forces to use bases in the UK to launch attacks on Iran.
Leftist and anti-war critics have long argued that NATO—which was formed to counter a Soviet threat that ceased to exist 35 years ago—is unnecessary and helped provoke Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. Proponents of the alliance say it is key to the unprecedented peace and prosperity enjoyed by most Europeans during the post-World War II era.
Responding to Starmer's remarks, UK Green Party leader Zack Polanski urged the prime minister to "show leadership" by ending all involvement in the Iran War and stopping the upcoming state visit to the United States by King Charles III, whose family, like the British state in general, has enriched itself through centuries of imperialism, slavery, and war.
“Starmer must end this involvement in Iran and stop the King's visit to the USA.”@zackpolanski.bsky.social calls on Starmer to show leadership - stop UK involvement in illegal wars, refuse concessions to Trump, and oppose normalising fascism through inappropriate state visits.
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— The Green Party of England & Wales (@greenparty.org.uk) April 1, 2026 at 7:00 AM
The NATO alliance has been tested before. France, Italy, and Spain denied US warplanes overflight privileges during then-President Ronald Reagan's 1986 bombing of Libya, and in 2003 a much deeper rift emerged over then-President George W. Bush's unprovoked US regime change war in Iraq. Some US allies—including the UK, Italy, and Spain—took part in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, while others, led by France, vehemently opposed the illegal war of choice.
Starmer's signaling of closer ties to Europe comes a decade after Britons voted to leave the European Union. There is considerable regret over the so-called Brexit, with more than 6 in 10 respondents to a September 2025 Best for Britain survey saying it was a mistake to leave the EU and just 11% calling the move a success.
The transatlantic tensions come as Trump claimed Wednesday on his Truth Social network that Iran "has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!"
Echoing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's repeated assertion that the US is "negotiating with bombs," Trump added: "We will consider [a ceasefire] when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!"
Nearly 2,000 Iranians have been killed over 33 days of US and Israeli bombing, according to officials there. On Friday, a coalition of human rights groups said that nearly 1,500 civilians, including 217 children, have been killed—many of them in the February 28 US cruise missile massacre at a girls' school in Minab that killed around 175 people.
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Calls for Legal Consequences Grow After Musk AI Bot Makes Suggestive Images of Children
"Musk is not cloaked in some federal immunity just because he's off-again/on-again buddies with Trump."
Jan 02, 2026
Elon Musk is facing calls for legal ramifications after Grok, the AI chatbot used on his X social media platform, produced sexually suggestive images of children.
Politico reported on Friday that the Paris prosecutor's office in France is opening an investigation into X after Grok, following prompts from users, created deepfake photographs of both adult women and underage girls that removed their clothes and replaced them with bikinis.
Politico added that the investigation into X over the images will "bolster" an ongoing investigation launched by French prosecutors last year into Grok's dissemination of Holocaust denial propaganda.
France is not the only government putting pressure on Musk, as TechCrunch reported on Friday that India's information technology ministry has given X 72 hours to restrict users' ability to generate content deemed "obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, pedophilic, or otherwise prohibited under law."
Failure to comply with this order, the ministry warned, could lead to the government ending X's legal immunity from being sued over user-generated content.
In an interview with Indian cable news network CNBC TV18, cybersecurity expert Ritesh Bhatia argued that legal liability for the images generated by Grok should not just lie with the users whose prompts generated them, but with the creators of the chatbot itself.
"When a platform like Grok even allows such prompts to be executed, the responsibility squarely lies with the intermediary," said Bhatia. "Technology is not neutral when it follows harmful commands. If a system can be instructed to violate dignity, the failure is not human behavior alone—it is design, governance, and ethical neglect. Creators of Grok need to take immediate action."
Corey Rayburn Yung, a professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, argued on Bluesky that it was "unprecedented" for a digital platform to give "users a tool to actively create" child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
"There are no other instances of a major company affirmatively facilitating the production of child pornography," Yung emphasized. "Treating this as the inevitable result of generative AI and social media is a harrowing mistake."
Andy Craig, a fellow at the Institute for Humane Studies, said that US states should use their powers to investigate X over Grok's generation of CSAM, given that it is unlikely the federal government under President Donald Trump will do so.
"Every state has its equivalent laws about this stuff," Craig explained. "Musk is not cloaked in some federal immunity just because he's off-again/on-again buddies with Trump."
Grok first gained the ability to generate sexual content this past summer when Musk introduced a new "spicy mode" for the chatbot that was immediately used to generate deepfake nude photos of celebrities.
Weeks before this, Grok began calling itself "MechaHitler" after Musk ordered his team to make tweaks to the chatbot to make it more "politically incorrect."
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