British-Palestinian surgeon ‘denied entry to Germany for conference’

12 April 2024, 19:14

Germany Palestinians
Germany Palestinians. Picture: PA

Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta volunteered in Gaza hospitals during the first weeks of the Israel-Hamas war.

A British-Palestinian surgeon who volunteered in Gaza hospitals during the first weeks of the Israel-Hamas war has said he was denied entry to Germany to take part in a pro-Palestinian conference — an event that police later ended early.

Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta said he arrived at Berlin airport on Friday morning before being stopped at passport control, where he was held for several hours and then told he had to return to the UK.

Airport police said he was refused entry due to “the safety of the people at the conference and public order”, Dr Abu Sitta told The Associated Press by phone.

He said his ban was to last until Sunday, covering the planned duration of the Berlin conference he was to attend, entitled the Palestine Congress.

Germany Palestinians
Participants try to prevent journalists from filming and photographing before the start of the Palestine Congress (Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa via AP)

The gathering was to discuss a range of topics, including German arms shipments to Israel and solidarity with what organisers called the Palestinian struggle.

Berlin police said later on Friday they pulled the plug on the event, attended by up to 250 people, on its first day after a livestream was shown of a person who is banned from political activity in Germany.

They would not identify the person but said they decided after a legal assessment to end the congress and asked those attending to leave.

Organisers wrote on social network X that the conference was “banned by the police without reason”.

Germany remains one of Israel’s staunchest defenders, even at a time of growing international outrage over the soaring Palestinian death toll in Gaza, which has surpassed 33,000.

German officials have stressed Israel’s right and duty to defend itself since the start of the war — though their tone has gradually shifted, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock increasingly decrying the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and calling on Israel to allow more aid to reach the territory.

Shortly after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, the German government implemented a formal ban on activity by or in support of Hamas.

Since the war erupted, Germany has clamped down on many pro-Palestinian activities and demonstrations, with officials citing fears of possible antisemitic or anti-Israel incitement.

The hard line has broad political support at home but has drawn criticism.

“Germany’s deportation of Dr Abu Sitta is a naked act of authoritarian censorship, more in line with the policies of dictatorships like Saudi Arabia and China than a rights-respecting democracy,” Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of Washington-based human rights watchdog Democracy for the Arab World Now said in a statement.

Dr Abu Sitta, who recently volunteered with Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, has worked during multiple conflicts in the Palestinian territories, beginning in the late 1980s during the first Palestinian uprising. He has also worked in other conflict zones, including in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Friday’s congress was viewed with great wariness by German officials before it started and was heavily policed.

Earlier on Friday, German Interior Ministry spokesperson Maximilian Kall told reporters in Berlin that federal security authorities had been in touch with their local counterparts in the capital “about questions of, for instance, entry bans”.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

Donald Trump has branded Zelenskyy a "dictator."

Trump labels Zelenskyy a ‘dictator,' says he owes US billions and only wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going

Russia's President Vladimir Putin said thousands of troops have crossed the Kursk border into Ukrainian territory.

Thousands of troops storm into Ukraine in fresh attack, Russia claims as Putin insists he’s ready for talks with Zelesnkyy

Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

Chinese tourist village slammed for using fake snow to draw in visitors

Charlotte Peet has gone missing in Brazil.

Father of Brit journalist missing in Brazil breaks silence as he reveals moment daughter's 'trail went cold'

Avoriaz is a French mountain resort

Brit skier, 23, found dead beneath French Alps cliff after 'plunging 260ft on return from night out'

Austrian police arrest teenager over 'attack at railway station'

Isis supporting boy, 14, 'who planned attack at railway station' held by Austrian police

Davi Nunes Moreira, of Planalto, Brazil, passed away seven days after injecting a solution made from a crushed butterfly into his leg.

Boy who injected himself with crushed butterfly for 'online challenge' suffered week of agonising symptoms before death

Near-Earth asteroid, artwork

NASA scientist increase chance of 'city killer' asteroid 'the size of Big Ben' striking earth

Exclusive
Sadiq Khan

'It's bonkers': Sadiq Khan hits out at Trump for 'rewarding' Putin while excluding Ukraine from peace talks

The mother of Lindsay Foreman, left, who is being detained in Iran for alleged espionage, says the charges are made up.

Mother of Brit detained in Iran during round-the-world motorbike trip says espionage charges are 'made up'

Pope Francis

Pope Francis fears he 'may not survive' as Pontif battles 'complex' double pneumonia

False killer whales became stranded on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, on a remote beach on near Arthur River in Australia's island state of Tasmania.

Horror as nearly 100 false killer whales set to be euthanised after mass stranding on Australian beach

Charlotte Peet has gone missing in Brazil.

Desperate hunt for missing Brit journalist, 32, who vanished almost two weeks ago in Brazil

Craig and Lindsay Foreman

Did motorbike couple's 'happiness' survey prompt arrest on spying charges in Iran?

The Vatican says Pope Francis is being treated for 'bilateral pneumonia'

New scans show Pope Francis has pneumonia in both lungs but Vatican says he remains ‘in good spirits’

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned 'any appearance by armed forces under some other flag' in Ukraine would be 'completely unacceptable', in a dig at a peace plan floated by Keir Starmer.

Keir Starmer’s Ukraine peacekeeping plan ‘completely unacceptable’, Russia tells US in Saudi Arabia talks