- Interview by
- Christophe Domec
On Sunday, the next aid mission led by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition will set sail for Gaza, with another boat full of food and essential supplies destined for the besieged territory.
It will be the first ship attempting to break Israel’s blockade since the Madleen was seized by Israeli authorities on June 9. Among its crew of twelve were Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and French-Palestinian member of the European Parliament (MEP) Rima Hassan.
Hassan had been elected last summer on a France Insoumise ticket, and has been one of France’s loudest voices calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. This has also guaranteed her a barrage of negative attention from the French political establishment, including legal attacks.
Far-right MEP Marion Maréchal (née Le Pen) recently called for Hassan to be stripped of her citizenship — terming her “French on paper” only. This came after interior minister Bruno Retailleau launched an investigation into Hassan’s alleged “terrorist apologism” — and after her questioning by police over similar charges.
Following this June’s aid mission, Israel detained Hassan for three days because she refused to sign a statement asserting that the Madleen was captured in Israeli waters. Hassan, who is an expert in international law, and Adalah, a human rights organization, have both made clear that the seizure took place in international waters.
Returning to Paris after her release, Hassan told a sea of supporters at the Place de la République that another humanitarian ship would be ready to leave soon.
Ahead of this Sunday’s mission, Amazon labor organizer Chris Smalls is the latest figure to announce he will be joining the crew. It will attempt to bring lifesaving supplies to Palestinians in Gaza who are facing famine as well as daily Israeli military assaults.
Smalls, an outspoken critic of Israel’s blockade, will board the vessel named after an iconic Palestinian cartoon character, Handala. It, like the last voyage, will set off to Gaza from Sicily.
As Palestine becomes a rallying cry for left-wingers around the world, it’s no surprise to see union organizers like Smalls become prominent actors in the solidarity movement.
Hassan, whose parents were refugees of the Nakba, argues that Palestine is a “structuring” struggle for the Left, as many of its core tenets are profoundly linked with Marxism and anti-imperialism.
A few days before the Handala’s departure, Hassan was in London, where she sat down with Jacobin’s Christophe Domec for an interview. They discussed the “battle over the narrative” on Palestine, repression against Palestine solidarity, and the prospects of a new left-wing party in the UK.
Christophe Domec
You gave a talk in Athens recently, and now you’re in London. Why do you think it’s important to cooperate in the Palestine movement internationally?
Rima Hassan
The Palestinian question requires people to engage with many other issues that are historically and structurally championed by the Left.
Historically the Palestinian resistance was shaped by Marxist, Leninist, and revolutionary ideas. I myself come from a communist family; I grew up with that heritage. We cannot think about the Palestinian question without also considering what it disrupts.
These are struggles carried forward by the Left, meaning decolonial and anti-racist struggles, as well as anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist ones.
When I was in Athens, the roundtable I took part in was about solidarity with the Palestinian people in the face of a drift toward further militarization around the world, especially as [Donald] Trump asks European leaders to align with spending 5 percent of GDP on the defense budget.
And it’s a two-way exchange. We can also ask, what do leftist movements across Europe and other parts of the world also have to offer the Palestinian people?
Christophe Domec
At the event in London you spoke about the complicity of European states in the capture of the Madleen and your detention by Israeli forces. What should people take away from your experience attempting to deliver aid?
Rima Hassan
You may have a partisan opinion on the question of the flotilla, but it’s very important to look at the relevant international law that applies in this case.
On the day after we left port, ten United Nations special rapporteurs requested that we be assured safe passage to the Gaza Strip while highlighting laws that apply to this humanitarian action.
They did so while noting that Palestinians in Gaza have the right to receive humanitarian aid and in fact that it was urgent in the context of this genocide.
We were literally kidnapped, taken by force to the port of Ashdod as we were heading toward Gaza. And we spent over twenty hours in the boat with multiple soldiers.
After that, we were detained illegally for multiple days by Israeli authorities. They had the nerve to try and make us sign a document that put the blame on us, claiming we entered Israeli waters illegally.
We refused because it did not include the fact that we were intercepted in international waters and were taken into Israeli territory by force.
We were surprised that not a single European state — and I’d like to remind people that ten of the twelve people on the boat were European nationals — reacted or came out to support these rights outlined by the UN rapporteurs.
We were the subject of a lot of contempt from these European governments. Reactions were shy in coming, and there was very little done in the way of condemning the interception or even denouncing our detention or arrest.
Christophe Domec
And what do the interception and the arrests say about Israel’s motives in Gaza?
Rima Hassan
It serves as a reminder of the real nature of the Israeli regime. It has always hidden behind the idea that it was dealing with terrorists in Gaza.
Here we were humanitarians on a mission to bring aid — but of course this action was also a political one.
Our arrest allowed international opinions to further shift on Israel, showing it is ready to intercept a little boat with twelve citizens [of various nations] that are concerned with what is happening in Gaza — and by that I mean war crimes and genocide that has now lasted over a year and a half.
Israel is ready to stop people arriving with small amounts of humanitarian aid and intentions that are entirely neutral, bringing flour, rice, hygienic products, and baby diapers.
We are confronted with an extremely repressive regime that went as far as to kidnap us and treat us like criminals. I personally had cuffs on my hands and my feet as if I had killed someone, but I just came off a boat bringing humanitarian aid to a population facing famine.
It’s important to put the current context back into perspective, particularly that the UN has raised the alarm about the famine situation in Gaza. It is everyone’s responsibility to do what they can to help alleviate as much as possible the suffering of Palestinians.
Christophe Domec
At your London roundtable, you mentioned the importance of the “narrative combat” for Palestine. The flotilla was quickly termed the “selfie yacht” by the Israeli foreign ministry and media outlets around the world. How can activists counter this sort of propaganda?
Rima Hassan
It’s true that Israel engages in a clear propaganda effort.
After October 7, Israel invested over €4 million in France alone on advertising through platforms like YouTube to promote propaganda for its offensive.
Faced with what Israel is, and the propaganda of the Israeli state and regime, we cannot win the battle for Palestine if we don’t win the battle over the narrative.
Winning this narrative battle means investing a lot in education and also having key, well-rooted talking points.
For example, take the Nakba, the question of apartheid, the right of return. These are essential elements that allow us to refocus the debate and present it more effectively.
But I think the Left doesn’t do propaganda well. Propaganda entails a bit of turning the screws, and we’re often facing regimes that are constantly innovating in their mechanisms to push and establish these ideas and images.
[The Left] is in a reactive position when we dismantle these ideas.
I think we need to own this, to take the initiative in activist spaces to embrace having narrative strategies.
This is very important. I’m convinced we can’t win a political battle if we don’t first win the battle over the narrative.
Christophe Domec
In the United Kingdom, MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana announced last week the creation of a new left-wing party that would distinguish itself from the center-left Labour Party on issues such as Palestine.
As a part of one of Europe’s most prominent left-populist movements, what advice would you give this new party?
Rima Hassan
My advice is clearly lay down the foundations and terms [of the alliance] from the start — before the momentum of this new party kicks in.
Ensure that, as the movement grows and gains strength, there remains a common foundation that continues to bind all its members together. That’s what didn’t quite work in the case of the New Popular Front (NFP) [the broad-left electoral alliance in France in summer 2024]).
For the NFP, everything happened very quickly in political terms, which didn’t allow for those foundations to be properly established.
There was an urgency to come together. We can clearly see that it didn’t hold up, due to personal agendas and repeated betrayals from parts of the Left, especially the social democrats.
Christophe Domec
Do you see similarities in the repression of pro-Palestine movements across Europe?
Rima Hassan
Yes, of course. I even think they are inspired by one another.
The risk is that, once a state pushes a repressive policy far enough, if it goes uncontested, other states will be inspired by it.
Parliamentarians in another country would think, “Look, we should follow the example of Germany or the UK, which dissolved such-and-such organization.”
We absolutely must resist this from the very start. We must resist this wave of [activist group] dissolutions, of criminalizing voices expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people.
The risk is that it becomes normalized and turns into a global policy of repression, which is already somewhat the case with student movements. There’s a report from the UN special rapporteur appointed on this issue who documented repression mechanisms in around thirty countries, and she explicitly describes it as a global crackdown.
And I believe this also extends to movements of solidarity [for Palestine].
We see groups being broken up in France; we see the same here in Britain; we see it in Germany.
We’re seeing court cases over slogans in Germany, in France, and in Britain as well. We’re also seeing prosecutions across Europe for so-called glorification of terrorism.
We must resist this, and we must organize in the face of this repression.