British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah was banned from entering France, media outlets reported.
Upon arriving early Saturday morning at Paris’ Charles-de-Gaulle airport from London, the doctor was turned back by border police. He was due to speak at a conference organized the same day at the Sénat.
Border security forces blamed the German authorities, who had also prevented him from entering their soil in mid-April when he was due to take part in a conference on Palestine in Berlin.
Germany has banned Abu-Sittah from obtaining a visa for one year in the entirety of the Schengen area.
The Palestinian doctor to Le Monde this morning by telephone from an airport office. He was waiting to be escorted by police to a flight back to London.
“The decision is done. There’s nothing I can do,” he told Le Monde.
Meanwhile, the organizer of the symposium, Europe Ecologie Les Verts (ELLV, Greens) senator Raymonde Poncet Monge told Le Monde that she had “total political disapproval” for the incident.
She added that the ecologist group had contacted the interior minister’s, Gérald Darmanin, office to resolve the situation but to no avail.
Monge said she was determined to bring the matter to court.
“How can Germany issue territorial bans throughout the Schengen area? It’s unbelievable.”
UNESCO revealed that more than 100 journalists and media workers, primarily Palestinians, have been killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists.
Gaza’s Media Office estimates the death toll at more than 140, averaging five journalists killed weekly since October 7, 2023.
Since the conflict began, at least 34,596 Palestinians have been killed and 77,816 injured in Gaza, with over 8,000 still missing under the rubble.
The conflict in Gaza, which began on October 7, has seen significant and tragic developments, with a continuing toll on human lives and infrastructure.
