France denies Glasgow University rector entry after allegations he supported Palestinian

The rector of Glasgow University has been blocked from entering France after claims he had repeatedly shown support for Palestinian gunmen.

Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British Palestinian plastic surgeon, said he was prevented by the French authorities from entering the country and sent back to London from Charles de Gaulle airport.

Mr Abu-Sittah, who is based in London, and had joined pro-Palestinian student protests at UCL on Friday, had been due to address the French Senate on Saturday, but found himself forced to return to the UK instead.

The move followed a decision by the German authorities last month to ban him from entering the Federal Republic, which prevents him from obtaining a visa for one year throughout the entirety of the Schengen area.

Europe is complicit, says surgeon

Mr Abu-Sittah hit out at the French decision, writing on X (formerly Twitter): “Fortress Europe silencing the witnesses to the genocide while Israel kills them in prison.

“Colonial genocide is a formative component of European identity. Hence their eagerness to become complicit in silencing the witnesses and arming the war criminals.”

The surgeon has previously been accused of tweeting praise for a 1987 attack by two militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine that saw Israeli soldiers killed.

In a 2019 post on Twitter, he wrote: “They landed in gliders into our occupied territories and killed 30 Zionist soldiers in an hour. Glory to the martyrs.”

In December 2022, he posted on Twitter: “We congratulate the brothers in Hamas and the comrades in the Popular Front on the anniversary of the launch. May you always be truthful, loyal and committed, may you always be proud and may your enemy be humiliated.”

‘I vehemently oppose terrorism’

Mr Abu-Sittah has expressed regret for his choice of words in the past, telling the Jewish Chronicle: “While I may in the past have used emotive language at the funeral of a friend or following an extra-judicial killing, I vehemently oppose terrorism, and civilian casualties on all sides.

“As a surgeon, my vocation is preserving life and I repeat my calls for a sustainable ceasefire and lasting peace.”

The organiser of the Europe Ecologie Les Verts symposium which Mr Abu-Sittah had been due to address condemned the decision to bar him from entering France.

Senator Raymonde Poncet Monge told Le Monde that she had “total political disapproval” for the incident.

Mr Abu-Sittah was due to speak about the impact of Israel’s attacks on Gaza’s health care system.

In October and November last year, he spent seven weeks working at Gaza’s Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli Baptist hospitals.