Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a British-Palestinian doctor, said on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Saturday that French authorities denied him entry ahead of a French Senate meeting where he was providing testimony about his experience in Gaza.. The authorities told him that German authorities placed a ban on him entering Europe.

Dr. Abu Sitta is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who spent 43 days in Gaza City as a volunteer with Doctors Without Borders, where he provided medical care to the wounded at the al-Ahli and al-Shifa hospitals. In an interview with the Washington Post in December 2023, Dr. Abu Sitta described his experiences during those 43 days, which he called a “massacre” which included the use of white phosphorus munitions by Israel and deaths and injury of Palestinian children.

Dr. Abu Sitta’s post on X says, “I am at Charles De Gaule airport. They are preventing me from entering France. I am supposed to speak at the French Senate today. They say the Germans put a 1 year ban on my entry to Europe.”

Dr. Abu Sitta was able to deliver his talk via video conference link, according to Raymonde Poncet Monge, the senator behind the conference, who expressed outrage that he was unable to attend in person. Abu Sitta was barred from entering France due to a Schengen-wide visa ban placed on him by Germany, which prohibited his entry into Schengen European countries. He was refused entry at the airport and put on a return flight to London. Abu Sitta was invited by the French Green Party to speak about his experiences in Gaza and the realities of the situation there.

The International Centre for Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) said that lawyers in Germany have been instructed to take legal action in the German courts. Tayab Ali, director of the ICJP said on X that the ban is an act of unacceptable “silencing and harassment of a witness to Israeli war crimes.”

Tayab Ali said:

German politicians have repeatedly claimed that Israel’s security is Germany’s “reason of state”. They are behaving as such: to shield Israel from criticism, they are denying the rights to speech and movement of a renowned doctor, who experienced first-hand Israel’s attack on Gaza’s healthcare system. ICJP are instructing lawyers in France and Germany to see that the German’s authoritarian crackdown on free speech and witness testimony won’t stand.

The German government is a staunch supporter of Israel. International Court of Justice (ICJ) proceedings were formally launched by Nicaragua against Germany accusing the country of complicity in genocide by supplying arms and munitions to Israel. However, the ICJ recently denied Nicaragua’s request for provisional measures to halt Germany’s arms aid to Israel. In April, German police shut down a pro-Palestine event and issued a ban to prevent the group from meeting again after it accused speakers of allegedly making antisemitic remarks.