A London surgeon who has provided testimony over the current war in Gaza after operating during the conflict has been denied entry to France, where he was due to speak in the French senate later on Saturday.
After arriving at Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris on Saturday morning on a flight from London, Prof Ghassan Abu-Sitta, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, was informed by French authorities that Germany had enforced a Schengen-wide ban on his entry to Europe.
French police said the German authorities, who had previously refused Abu-Sitta entry to Germany in April, had put a visa ban on him for a year, meaning he was banned from entering any Schengen country. It is not clear whether Abu-Sitta was aware of this before flying to Paris.
“They are preventing me from entering France. I am supposed to speak at the French senate today,” said Abu-Sitta, who had been invited by Green party parliamentarians to take part in a conference at the Sénat, the upper house, to speak about Gaza. The theme of the conference was: France and its responsibility in the application of international law in Gaza.
It’s interesting that France has lost its autonomy here. Can they not even permit him entry with an escort?
It seems Abu-Sitta was denied entry into Germany because he was going to attend another conference that the Germans felt might cause a disturbance:
(From the April German ban)
Germany feels so much guilt about perpetuating one Holocaust that it is preventing information about another Holocaust from getting out.
Its so shameful how the goverment of the country i call home is behaving. I wonder how historians will look at this in a couple decades.
And you know what’s the worst thing: The opposition is even worse. Friedrich Merz is basically German Donald Trump and the AfD with people like Björn Höcke is just the spiritual successor to the NSDAP
It’s worth contemplating how absolutism influences our various cultures. Genocide feeds on it.
At least the job is being done by a master in the field.
The only way any country would agree to being part of a geographic zone with no internal border controls is if they could disallow individuals from the whole area. Not much point refusing a man entry into Germany if he can just go to France and rent a car, drive to Berlin.
They wouldn’t rent a car. They’d take the train.
Not really the takeaway here but ok.
Carrying a huge rucksack which makes an odd ticking noise.
Weird source, they did identify the person, and it was Abu Sitta. He was the reason the conference had to be stopped.
Are people here not even curious what he was banned for? He said that he would have participated himself in the Hamas attack if he were younger. He’s not in support of Palestine, he is very specifically pro Hamas.
It’s internal politics.
The other article I read said that the guy was invited by a member of the opposition (EELV, the Greens), and when contacted the Élysée (head office of the executive) literally said “there’s not much the police could do about a Schengen ban”.
… i.e. of course France could have allowed him in. The executive just chose not to exercise its power because that would not have benefitted the majority.