Scottish PEN is appalled by the news that Dr Ghassan Abu-Sitta was prevented from entering France on Saturday 4th May 2024. Dr Abu-Sitta is a renowned British-Palestinian plastic surgeon, rector of Glasgow University, and a witness to the genocide in Gaza.
Dr Abu-Sitta arrived in France having been asked to testify about his direct experiences of the genocide in Gaza at the French Senate. On arrival, he was stripped of all his possessions and detained in a holding cell at Charles De Gaulle airport in the presence of armed guards. Without any prior knowledge of this, Dr Abu-Sitta was informed that Germany had placed a one-year Schengen-wide ban on his entry to Europe, a directive followed unquestioningly by the French authorities.
In April, less than 24 hours after giving his inaugural speech as rector of the University of Glasgow, Dr Abu-Sitta was detained and deported at Berlin Airport where he was expecting to speak at the Palestine Congress. The Palestine Congress was swiftly and forcibly shut down by the German Police.
Scottish PEN gives its full and unconditional support to Dr Abu-Sitta and expresses outrage at his deportation from Germany and France. Scottish PEN stands in absolute opposition to the deliberate attempt by the German government to stifle freedom of speech and freedom of movement. Attempts to silence Palestinian voices in the midst of Israel’s horrific genocide in Palestine are authoritarian and against international human rights laws .As an organisation championing freedom of expression, Scottish PEN abhors these recent attempts to undermine, disrupt and actively prevent freedom of speech.
Scottish PEN stands in solidarity with Dr Abu-Sitta and will continue to provide support wherever and whenever we can.
Scottish PEN subscribes to the principles of the PEN Charter, most pertinently here principles 3 and 4:
Members of PEN should at all times use what influence they have in favour of good understanding and mutual respect between nations; they pledge themselves to do their utmost to dispel race, class and national hatreds, and to champion the ideal of one humanity living in peace in one world.
PEN stands for the principle of unhampered transmission of thought within each nation and between all nations, and members pledge themselves to oppose any form of suppression of freedom of expression in the country and community to which they belong, as well as throughout the world wherever this is possible.
Image credit: University of Glasgow