Gazan surgeon Ghassan Abu Sittah denied entry into France

Palestine

Published: 2024-05-04 15:24

Last Updated: 2024-05-18 14:50


Gaza Surgeon Ghassan Abu Sittah pictured during an interview in January, 2024. (Photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP)
Gaza Surgeon Ghassan Abu Sittah pictured during an interview in January, 2024. (Photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP)

French authorities arrested the Palestinian-British doctor and activist Ghassan Abu Sittah at Charles de Gaulle Airport on Saturday, seizing his phone and preventing him from entering under the pretext of having a memorandum prohibiting him from entering European Union territories based on a complaint from German authorities.

Abu Sittah stated on his "X" account that he was scheduled to deliver a speech before the French Senate, adding that he was informed that Germany had imposed a one-year ban on him from entering Europe.

Abu Sittah had been invited by the Green Party to the French Senate to testify about the current events in the Gaza Strip.


Also Read: Gaza war surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah elected Glasgow University rector


Earlier in April, German authorities had prevented Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, a British-Palestinian surgeon with a speciality in medicine in conflict zones, from entering the country to attend a conference about his work in Gaza hospitals.

In a post on his personal “X” account, Abu Sittah stated that “the German government has forcibly prevented me from entering the country.”

“Silencing a witness to genocide before the ICJ adds to Germany's complicity in the ongoing massacre,” he added.

“They are accomplices in the crime and that is what accomplices do. They bury the evidence and silence the witnesses. They are admitting to the Nicaraguan charges at the ICJ,” Abu Sittah said, adding that Europe is “shedding its liberal hypocrisy.”


Also Read: King, Queen meet with Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah after evacuating from Gaza


Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah is an influential figure in raising awareness of the “Israeli” aggression against the Gaza Strip, which has resulted in the death of more than 33,000 Palestinians since his departure from the coastal enclave in late November.

In the early weeks after the occupation began its assault, Abu Sittah, being an English-speaking doctor, began speaking out of the experiences of Palestinian doctors and the tragic humanitarian situation in the Strip caused by “Israeli” attacks.

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