France denies entry to British-Palestinian surgeon who praised terror leader

Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a Palestinian-British plastic surgeon speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, Lebanon, Dec. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)
Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a Palestinian-British plastic surgeon speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, Lebanon, Dec. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

PARIS — A well-known British-Palestinian surgeon who volunteered in Gaza hospitals says he was denied entry to France to speak at a French Senate meeting about the Israel-Hamas war. Authorities won’t give a reason for the decision.

Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta was placed in a holding zone in the Charles de Gaulle airport and will be expelled, according to French Senator Raymonde Poncet Monge, who had invited him to speak at the Senate.

‘’It’s a disgrace,’’ she posts on X.

Abu Sitta posts on social networks that he was denied entry to France because of a one-year ban by Germany on his entry to Europe. Germany denied him entry last month, and France and Germany are part of Europe’s border-free Schengen zone. He posts that he’s being sent back to London.

The French Foreign Ministry, Interior Ministry, local police and the Paris airport authority will not comment on what happened or give an explanation.

Abu Sitta had been invited by France’s left-wing Ecologists group in the Senate to speak at a colloquium Saturday about the situation in Gaza, according to the Senate press service. The gathering included testimony from medics, journalists and international legal experts with Gaza-related experience.

Last month, Abu Sitta was denied entry to Germany to take part in a pro-Palestinian conference. He said he was stopped at passport control, held for several hours and then told he had to return to the UK. He said airport police told him he was refused entry due to “the safety of the people at the conference and public order.”

Last year, the UK’s Jewish Chronicle reported that Abu Sitta spoke at a Beirut ceremony on the anniversary of the death of a founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Maher Al-Yamani.

The report said Abu Sitta wept as he “hailed the late terror group founder for his success at striking fear into the hearts of Israelis.”

Terrorists from the PFLP participated in the devastating October 7 attack, which triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.

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