00:00An Israeli flag that ended up on the floor at a commemoration ahead of October 7th.
00:04What do you know about this incident and can you confirm it did take place?
00:09Well, to the best of my understanding, she confirmed it herself.
00:13She made a speech saying that she did kick down the Israeli flag
00:17and then that as a result of it, the European flag fell as well.
00:23She said it in a speech to the best of my understanding.
00:25Therefore, it's not that there is she's not hiding anything.
00:28She's even proud of what she did, which is ununderstandable, really.
00:33I cannot understand how a person that aims to be a politician,
00:38that aims to represent the public, can be so violent and disrespectful
00:43of the death of thousands of people that has been caused by the same cause that she's trying to help.
00:51The head of the European Parliament is saying this is unacceptable and she takes this extremely serious.
00:56From your part as the Israeli ambassador to France, will you ask for the European Parliament to put forward more
01:03sanctions?
01:04Will you ask the French government to take action once the details are clarified?
01:10You know, Mrs. Rima Hassan, the member of Parliament that kicked down the flags,
01:14is accused of support to terrorism.
01:19She is supposed to appear before court in the next few days.
01:23This is a person that has been extremely active in her anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in the support of
01:31terrorism.
01:31She openly supports Hamas.
01:33She openly supports what Hamas did on October 7th.
01:37This is a terrible person, let's be clear.
01:40And I think that she's perceived to be a terrible person by the largest part of the French politics.
01:47So it's not that I need to convince anybody that that's the case.
01:52And she's also supporting openly terrorism in her statements and in the support that she gave to terrorist acts
02:00that took place in Israel in the past.
02:02So she's a terrible person.
02:03Let's be clear about that.
02:05I do want to clarify, there is an ongoing legal process, but she has denied.
02:10She supported or expressed an apology of terrorism.
02:13Of course, that case will continue its path.
02:15But specifically, though, given that this incident took place in the European Parliament in Strasbourg,
02:21will you escalate this matter to French authorities?
02:23Will you ask for this to be investigated as hate, anti-Semitism?
02:28This is an issue that has been dealt with by the European Parliament.
02:32In all, the Division of Labour, our embassy to Brussels, the embassy to the European Union,
02:39is the one in charge of following this issue.
02:42And to the best of my understanding, there is a very close dialogue between our embassy
02:47and the president of the European Parliament concerning this issue,
02:52with the purpose of making sure that something like that will never happen again,
02:55and that Mrs. Rima Hassan faces the challenges she needs to face.
03:00But you say all anti-Semitism is unacceptable.
03:02I have to ask you about the allegations that have appeared in the French press
03:06that Jordan Bardella, the right-hand man of Marine Le Pen,
03:09made anti-Semitic comments when he was 17.
03:11Some of these comments include,
03:13the Jews control all the banks.
03:16Do you see that also as equally worrying?
03:18Of course.
03:19Any type of anti-Semitism, any statement, any type of statement, act,
03:25anyway, is unacceptable and is comprehensible.
03:28Now, the question is, as you said, these are allegations,
03:31and we are following very closely.
03:33And we will make, or we will react to it once it is clear that these allegations are true,
03:40or if not, then we react otherwise.
03:42For the time being, we will reserve our response.
03:46We have an issue.
03:47There is an issue of anti-Semitism in France.
03:49There is an issue of anti-Semitism in Europe.
03:52Unfortunately, the rise of anti-Semitism has happened significantly after October 7th.
03:58But there is one party who is openly, in France, openly anti-Semitic, and that's LFI.
04:05And the leader of that party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is copying the mimics of leaders
04:14that were active in Europe in the 30s of the last centuries.
04:18So are you making a comparison also to Nazism and Hitler?
04:21Would you say that this gentleman acts like Hitler did in the 30s?
04:25I've said that publicly in the past already, yes.
