A British Palestinian doctor scheduled to speak at a Palestinian solidarity conference in Berlin that was later shut down said he was “forcibly prevented” from entering Germany by the country’s authorities on Friday, The Washington Post reported.
The doctor, Ghassan Abu Sitta, is a reconstructive plastic surgeon who spent 43 days last year tending to the sick and wounded in Gaza City beginning on October 9.
He claimed he watched a genocide unfolding and has posted his claims on X and in op-eds. After being questioned for three hours on arrival in Berlin, he was told he was not permitted entry into the country, the Post reported.
“We will be taking up his removal from Germany with the authorities and will expect a full explanation for the manner in which he was treated today,” Abu Sitta’s lawyers said in a statement posted to X, adding that he “is safely back in London.”
Professor @GhassanAbuSitt1 is safely back in London.As his lawyers, we will be taking up his removal from Germany with the authorities and will expect a full explanation for the manner in which he was treated today. @GermanyDiplo
— Tayab Ali (@tayab_ali_) April 12, 2024
After arriving back in Britain, Abu Sitta claimed at a demonstration at the German embassy in London that “they want to silence Palestinian voices” the Post reported. “When you see what they are doing to the people in Gaza, this is nothing; they want to silence the witnesses.”
He posted on X that he was “invited to address a conference in Berlin about my work in Gaza hospitals during the present conflict. 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.”
In several op-eds published in Mondoweiss, an anti-Israel website, Abu Sitta claimed that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and its allies are enablers. He has consistently called for a boycott of Israeli goods and academic institutions.The conference the doctor was scheduled to attend was shut down after his uncle, Salman Abu Sitta, spoke via video.
Police said in a statement on X that the latter is “banned from political activity. There’s concern that another speaker, who has previously expressed antisemitic or violence-supporting views, might be connected [to the event] in the future. As a result, the assembly was adjourned, and a prohibition was also announced for Saturday and Sunday.”
The conference Dr. Sitta was scheduled to attend
The website announcing the event and its schedule accused Israel of genocide and ethnic cleansing. Among the demands of the conference is the right of return of all Palestinians to all of Israel; reparations by Israel, Germany and other Israeli allies to the Palestinian people; and immediate cessation of all military, diplomatic and economic support for Israel by the German state.
The conference demanded a comprehensive military embargo; banning the usage of the IHRA definition by any institution or state authority, which it dubs “Zionist”; a halt to the criminalization and repression of the Palestine solidarity movement in Germany; and an opening of all border crossings from “Rafah to Allenby.”
It also called for an immediate ceasefire, an end to all restrictions on humanitarian aid for Gazans, and a reinstitution of funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
After numerous investigations, it was discovered that 12 UNRWA employees participated in the October 7 attacks, which included the torture and murder of more than a thousand Israeli citizens and foreign nationals in their homes and at a music festival.
Abu Sitta’s father was an UNRWA employee in 1949, he said in an op-ed published in Mondoweiss.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wagner supported the police actions in shutting down the remainder of the conference. “We have made it clear which rules apply in Berlin,” he posted on X. “We have made it clear that hatred of Israel has no place in Berlin. Anyone who does not abide by these rules will feel the consequences.”