Twenty European Jewish leaders called on European Parliament President Roberta Metsola to impose sanctions on Rima Hassan, a French member of the assembly, after she publicly denied that the Bibas family has been murdered in Gazan captivity by Hamas and justified the terrorist group’s actions as “legitimate.”
In a radio interview one day after the Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel and Kfir were buried in Israel, Rima Hassan, a member of the far-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party, claimed that they were not murdered by the Palestinian terrorist organization and pointed the finger of responsibility at the “occupation and colonization regime imposed by Israel.”
Ariel, then 4 years old, Kfir, then 9 months old, and Shiri were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023. The kibbutz was one of the hardest hit communities on that day—terrorists broke into all but six homes.
Hamas subsequently claimed that the three captives died in an Israeli Air Force strike. Terrorists even disfigured the bodies to make it look so before exchanging them for terrorists released by Israel. But the forensic and medical teams in Israel rapidly uncovered the truth. They were brutally murdered around one month after they were abducted.
In a letter to Metsola, the Jewish leaders, who represent Jewish organizations and communities in their respective countries and are members of the European Jewish Association Leadership Council, noted that the parliament’s Code of Conduct, last revised in 2023, states that “Member of the European Parliament act solely in the public interest and conduct their work with disinterest, integrity, openness, diligence, honesty, accountability and respect for the European Parliament’s dignity and reputation.”
“Mrs. Hassan has treated the code of conduct with utter contempt. She insults the Bibas family in the most despicable way, and trumpets Hamas propaganda with impunity,” they wrote.
“Have we instead reached the stage in European political discourse when an elected representative can openly deny murder and justify the acts of a proscribed terrorist organization?” they asked, noting that Hassan was not invited to speak to the radio as a private individual, but as an MEP, when she made the offending remarks.
“We believe the severity of this merits at the very least a reprimand, suspension from the House, and the convening of the Advisory Committee on Members Conduct,” the Jewish leaders wrote.
Originally published by the European Jewish Press.
