Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu-Sitta says he was denied entry to France
Al Jazeera
The surgeon who helped treat patients during Israel’s war on Gaza was scheduled to speak at the French Senate.
Ghassan Abu-Sitta, a doctor who spent 43 days in Gaza helping treat those wounded in Israel’s war, said he is being denied entry to France where he was scheduled to make a speech at the Senate.
“I am at Charles De Gaulle airport. They are preventing me from entering France. I am supposed to speak at the French Senate today,” Abu-Sitta posted on the social media platform X on Saturday.
“Fortress Europe silencing the witnesses to the genocide while Israel kills them in prison,” the renowned British-Palestinian plastic surgeon who is also rector of the University of Glasgow added.
Abu Sitta was placed in a holding zone at the airport and will be expelled, according to French Senator Raymonde Poncet Monge, a Green party member who had invited him to speak at the Senate.
The president of the Greens’ Senate group, Guillaume Gontard, called the decision to block Abu-Sitta “scandalous”, and said he was negotiating with the interior and foreign ministries to reverse the move. He added, however, that the doctor would “probably” be sent back to the United Kingdom.
