TNA Staff
The New Arab / June 29, 2025
French MEP Rima Hassan was taunted and threatened by two estate agents in Paris over her support for Palestine.
French-Palestinian MEP and activist Rima Hassan was subject to racial abuse and threats directed at her in the French capital Paris on Friday.
Hassan filmed the incident on her phone, where a male and female employees from French real estate agency Orpi Pro were visibly taunting her as she walked by. One man can be heard saying “Am Yisrael Chai”, which translates to “The people of Israel live” directly at Hassan multiple times, to which she replies, “Okay, are you happy?” and “we’re not in Israel here” in a seemingly calm manner.
“We’re going to burn your Palestine,” the man threatened.
The lawmaker, who made history last year when she became the first person of Palestinian descent to be elected to the European parliament, spoke of the incident on social media, providing the estate agency’s address and directly urging Orpi Pro to address the incident.
Following Hassan’s complaint, the agency, located in Paris’ 10th arrondissement, has been subject to a flurry of negative reviews on Google. Over 10,000 negative comments have now been left, bringing down the agency’s rating to 1.1 stars.
One user wrote: “Employees who verbally abuse a Member of the European Parliament and openly call for the burning of Palestine!!! utterly shameful.”
Another said: “Do not use their services, they’re proudly pro geno[cide].”
Others wrote comments such as “disrespectful” and “[this place] lacks professionalism”.
The real estate agency then issued a statement replying to Hassan. Orpi Pro called their employees’ actions “unacceptable and contrary to their fundamental values”.
“These discriminatory and threatening words do not reflect Orpi France’s values nor our professional standards, which have always advocated respect, tolerance and equal treatment for all our customers”.
The agency went on to apologise to Hassan, before stating that the employees who verbally abused her have now been fired.
Hassan made headlines earlier this month for being among a cohort of activists seeking to deliver humanitarian relief to the devastated Gaza Strip via Madleen, a vessel operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
Hassan, as well as Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and other activists aboard the ship, were detained by Israeli naval officers after their boat was intercepted in international waters.
Hassan was detained for several days before being deported by Israeli authorities to Paris.
Hassan was born in the Nairab Palestinian refugee camp near Aleppo in Syria and resettled in France aged nine.
She has often been the target of cyber bullying, death threats, and threats of sexual assault by Israel supporters in France due to her pro-Palestinian activism.
