A “Hassan” Rhyme “: The Free University of Brussels (ULB) is declared on Thursday, August 28 for the choice of this Franco-Palestinian Eurodiputa accused of supporting Hamas, but whose students defend the commitment to Gaza.
The election of the name, derived from a vote at the beginning of the summer of the outgoing promotion of the Faculty of Law and Criminology of the ULB, must be debated by the Faculty Council, a government agency that combines teachers and representatives of the students.
The decision to validate it or not, expected at the end of the day, is observed both by the political class and by the Belgian educational community.
“Tragic Beguera”
Rima Hassan, a 33-year-old Franco-Palestinian lawyer and Eurodiputada (LFI, radical left), has been attacked since the late 2023 by a judicial investigation in France in France for “apologism for terrorism”, after having made comments considered as a support brand for the Islamist movement Hamas, in chance for the attack of October 7 perpetrated by him.
Multiply the controversial statements about Israel, a country from which it was expelled in mid -June after being arrested while trying to win Gaza aboard the Mamleen sailboat to “break the Israeli block.”
In an open letter published this week at The Belgian Press this week, several dozen French personalities asked the ULB address to reject his name “stain” the reputation of this recognized university. They deplored “a tragic blindness” of the students in the personality of Rima Hassan.
“Rima Hassan, like her friends from LFI, never condemned Hamas, whom she considers the legitimate armed wing of what she calls scandalously (…) the ‘resistance’ of the Palestinians,” he accuses this gallery, signed in particular by lawyer Arno Klarsfeld and the former ministers Bernard Kouchner and Luc Ferry.
“Brave” choice
“The academic authorities cannot accept the diktat of the far left,” the Belgian French-speaking Belgian right Georges-Louis Bouchez was launched in X, whose party is associated with the Power coalition.
For their part, law students asked to be supported by the leaders of their university.
They defended a “brave” sponsorship option, in relation to “struggle for respect for international law”, while European Union leaders do not agree to sanction Israel, while recognizing war crimes and human rights violations in the conflict for almost two years in Gaza.
“When making this decision, what is really pointed out is silence, the absence of reaction. Since no one moves, it was symbolically important to show that the University of Law moves and protests,” said a student of the promotion in question, Violaine La Fontaine.
His video message posted on social networks had been “liked” Wednesday afternoon for Rima Hassan and almost 5,000 Internet users.
“We hope that the will of students and students, who choose this name after a democratic process and comply with the established rules, will be heard,” said the MEP team, requested by AFP.
“In the past, the Faculty Council has been limited in almost all cases to take note of the election of the students,” said the dean of the Law Faculty, Pierre Klein.
The War in Gaza mobilizes the campus of several universities around the world, especially in the United States, where the Trump administration inflicted one billion dollars at the Public University of California for propaleinian demonstrations in 2024.
Source: BFM TV
