Prominent British-Palestinian surgeon says he was denied entry to France

A British-Palestinian surgeon who volunteered in Gaza hospitals during the first weeks of Israel's war on Gaza has said he was denied entry to France where he is scheduled to make a speech at the Senate.

Ghassan Abu Sitta said that he arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport on Saturday before being stopped from entering the country.

“I am at Charles De Gaulle airport. They are preventing me from entering France. I am supposed to speak at the French Senate today. They say the Germans put a 1-year ban on my entry to Europe,” Abu Sitta posted on X.

Abu Sittah was denied entry to Germany in April after the country banned a pro-Palestinian event in the capital, Berlin.

“Fortress Europe silencing the witnesses to the genocide while Israel kills them in prison,” he added.

Germany’s deportation

In April, Police in Berlin stormed a conference entitled the Palestine Congress that Abu Sitta was to attend shutting off electricity and canceling the weekend-long event.

The gathering was to discuss a range of topics, including German arms shipments to Israel and solidarity with the Palestinians.

According to Abu Sitta, the German government forcibly prevented him from entering the country after hours of questioning.

Germany’s deportation of him was widely criticised by activists and rights organisations.

“How mad is this country to stop a doctor speaking about what he has witnessed firsthand, something that the International Court of Justice thinks is likely a genocide,” a former South African politician and pro-Palestine activist Andrew Feinstein, who was also scheduled to deliver a recorded message at the event, told Anadolu.

Abu Sitta, who has over 30 years of experience, has worked on 12 wars across Yemen, Iraq, Syria, South Lebanon, and Gaza.

The reconstructive plastic surgeon, who spent 43 days in Gaza to help treat wounded people last year, was invited to speak about his work in Gaza hospitals.

The 54-year-old testified to the Met, the UK's biggest police force, upon his return, about the deaths he witnessed and the kinds of weapons used, as part of evidence being gathered for an International Criminal Court probe into alleged war crimes committed by Israel.

He arrived in the Palestinian enclave following Israel's deadly military offensive on Gaza triggered by Hamas' incursion which killed some 1,200 people.

Tel Aviv, in comparison, has killed more than 34,600 Palestinians and wounded nearly 78,000 amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities in the Palestinian territory.