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Fleur Hassan-Nahoum
Israeli politician and policymaker From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Fleur Hassan-Nahoum (Hebrew: פלר חסן-נחום; born 1973)[1] is an Israeli politician and today a media commentator. In 2023, she was appointed by Israel's foreign minister Eli Cohen as special envoy for innovation.[2]
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Biography
Fleur Hassan-Nahoum was born in London and grew up in Gibraltar. She is the daughter of Sir Joshua Hassan, who served as the first Mayor of Gibraltar and, later, also served as the first Chief Minister of Gibraltar,[3] and his second wife, Lady Marcelle Bensimon,[4] both of Moroccan and Portuguese Jewish origin. Her younger sister, Marlene Hassan Nahon, was a Member of the Gibraltar Parliament (MP).[1]
In 1991, at the age of 18, Hassan-Nahoum moved back to London to study law at King's College London, where she served as president of the King's College Jewish Society.[1] After qualifying as a barrister in 1997, she practiced law in London and became campaign director of World Jewish Relief.[5]
In 2001, Hassan-Nahoum emigrated to Israel.[6] She is married with four children.[7]
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Legal and communications career
Upon graduation from law school, Hassan-Nahoum was a barrister at Middle Temple and later served as campaign director at World Jewish Relief, a British Jewish charitable organization.[8]
In 2023 following the October 7 attacks on Israel, Hassan-Nahoum launched The Quad on JNS TV with co-hosts Emily Schrader, an Israeli journalist, and Vivian Bercovici, the former Canadian Ambassador to Israel.[9]
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Political career
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In 2013, Hassan-Nahoum joined the Yerushalmim Party.
When she entered the role of Deputy Mayor, she was criticized across the political spectrum from the ultra-Orthodox factions and the pluralist factions. The liberal parties noted that her faction "has been erased from the political map and has ceased to serve the public that elected it," and the Awakening party said among other things, that "the Jerusalemite faction has no backbone or ideological line. They are hopeless wimps." She was extensively criticized for drawing what was perceived as a very high salary. [10]
In the November 2018 Jerusalem municipal elections, Hassan-Nahoum ran as number 2 in the Jerusalem Will Succeed Party. [11] Mayor Moshe Lion named her Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem on November 13, 2018, in charge of tourism and foreign relations,[12] including philanthropy, international economic development, business relations and Diaspora affairs.[13]
In 2020, Hassan-Nahoum was one of the founding members of the UAE–Israel Business Council, which was established following the Abraham Accords Peace Treaty between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain. In October 2020, Hassan led a delegation that visited the two Gulf states to pursue cooperation. Hassan-Nahoum organized an inaugural meeting of the Gulf-Israel Women's Forum, a group of women that serves as a division of the UAE-Israel Business Council.[14][15]
Nahoum defended Christian missionaries in the Old City of Jerusalem when a Jerusalem Deputy Mayor protested against what many believed to be missionaries visiting the Western Wall, the holiest site in Jerusalem. [16]
Betar Zionist Movement
In 2025, Hassan-Nahoum demanded the expulsion of Netanyahu-affiliated Betar US, the 100-year-old historic Zionist movement of Ze'ev Jabotinsky from the World Zionist Congress elections describing the organization committed to Jews fighting back as a radical hate group, aligning herself with the ADL. Hassan-Nahoum also charged that Betar, a 100-year-old Zionist movement had engaged in “abhorrent” violations of the ethical standards of the Zionist movement and claimed that “there can be no room in the Zionist movement for such racism, thuggery, and evil that will ultimately harm the Jewish people.” Hassan-Nahoum demanded the removal of Betar USA from its partnership with the historic ZOA.
Morton Klein, longtime head of the Zionist Organization of America called Hassan-Nahoum “a liar and a disgrace.” She in return had stated that Klein "abused" her. She was further criticized as one "obsessed with silencing Netanyahu" as "she works to silence Betar and Jabotinsky in the hopes of having a good name" and Betar leaders described her demands as absurd.[17][18][19][20]
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Views and opinions
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Hassan-Nahoum describes herself as a religious Jew and a Zionist.[21]
During the 2018 municipal elections, the Likud's local Jerusalem branch called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to retract his support of Zeev Elkin for Mayor when Elkin included Hassan-Nahoum on his electoral list. The Likud claimed that her links to the New Israel Fund and other left wing groups made it impossible for them to support Elkin.[22]
Hassan-Nahoum came under fire for attending an event organised by the far-left Emek Shaveh group, and sponsored by the New Israel Fund and the European Union. Families of victims of terrorism protested her attendance claiming that she was giving legitimacy to a group that encourages terrorism.[23]
During conflicts in Jerusalem between Jews and Arabs, she has noted that there has been ".. an escalation that has brought Jewish and Arab extremists to riots.” She called a Jewish organization in Jerusalem, “a bunch of extremists” who were making it difficult for police to quell the rioting and insisted that rioters on both sides are treated equally by the Israeli police. She urged community leaders on both sides to appeal to young people to stay home." [24]
In 2021, speaking on the controversy over attempted Israeli evictions of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, Hassan-Nahoum defended Israeli government policies which allow Jews to reclaim property allegedly abandoned following Israel's War of Independence: "This is a Jewish country. There’s only one. And of course there are laws that some people may consider as favoring Jews — it’s a Jewish state. It is here to protect the Jewish people."[25]
During the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, she said that "woke" left-wing activists had formed a "toxic alliance" with Hamas to fuel antisemitism in the UK.[26]
While speaking on LBC in December 2023 she made the erroneous claims that "There are no churches in Gaza" and also that there were no Christians there, whilst speaking on Pope Francis' condemnation of the killing of Nahida and Samar Anton at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City.[27]
In July 2025, Channel 4 News, Hassan‑Nahoum, during an interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy stated that “So‑called Gaza doctors have been hiding terrorists in tunnels.”. She offered no evidence for this claim, but stated that "it would be proven soon enough that so-called doctors have been involved in terrorist activities", without offering any evidence whatsoever.
However when Guru-Murthy informed her that they are real doctors and were released without charge, she stated that it was a legitimate tactic to arrest doctors without any information. It is a war crime to target medical personnel in a war zone.[28]
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References
External links
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