The British Palestinian medic and recently-appointed University of Glasgow rector, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, was detained at Berlin Airport on Friday, 12 April, and refused entry into Germany.
Dr. Abu Sittah told Anadolu Agency that Germany wants to “silence Palestinian voices.”
The rector had been scheduled to speak at a pro-Palestinian conference in Berlin about his experiences in the Shifa and al-Ahil hospitals in the Gaza Strip, during the 43 days he spent in the territory during the immediate aftermath of 7 October 2024.
He told the Associated Press that airport police referenced “the safety of the people at the conference and public order” to justify the refusal.
The doctor described being immediately brought to an airport interrogation room upon landing on German soil, where he was questioned for three and a half hours.
He was then deported back to the UK, his passport being detained until he boarded his flight back.
The German Police warned him that if he were to attend the conference over Zoom or FaceTime, he would risk being fined or sentenced to up to a year in prison.
On the day of the event, the German police forcibly cut short the conference by force after a speaker appeared at the conference on video who had been banned from political activity over “antisemitic and violence-glorifying remarks”, according to Berlin police.
Dr. Abu Sittah expressed his concern towards the role Germany is occupying in this conflict.
He told the Middle East Eye that:
“As Germany is defending itself against the Nicaraguan charges that it is an accomplice to the genocidal war as described by the International Court of Justice, this is exactly what accomplices to a crime do.”
“They bury the evidence, and they silence, or harass, or intimidate the witnesses.”
“University of Glasgow Quadrangle” by Michael D Beckwith is marked with CC0 1.0.