Interior Minister Moshe Arbel has ordered that European Parliament member Rima Hassan, who previously supported Hamas, be denied entry to Israel.
Hassan has been consistently promoting boycotts against Israel and has made many public statements both on social media and in media interviews. She is scheduled to arrive in Israel shortly.
In elections held less than a year ago, Hassan was elected for the first time to the European Union on behalf of France, and she is a member of the LFI party, led in France by antisemite Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Throughout the election campaign, Hassan called for "political action regarding the situation in the Gaza Strip."
Hassan often uses the phrase "from the river to the sea." After the Hamas massacre on October 7, she said that "it is morally unacceptable to rejoice over the deaths of civilians," but clarified that she "refuses to conform to social media that turns such empathy into support for Israel."
When asked in the interview whether she thinks Hamas carried out a legitimate operation, she answered in the affirmative. When asked about Israel's right to defend itself, she replied in the negative.