Press Release by Italian health workers on Ghassan Abu Sitta entry ban
4 Min Read
Al Mayadeen publishes a press release by Italian health workers commenting on Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta's entry ban to France.
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Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, plastic and emergency surgeon
In a press release, Italian health workers condemned the ban on Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta into France and Europe.
It read: "Today Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta, Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, plastic and emergency surgeon was denied entry to France where he was due to be heard in the Senate. The request to deny him entry to all Schengen countries stems from the refusal to enter Germany for a conference on Palestine on April 12, deemed preemptively dangerous for public order".
It continued that the doctor shows "that it is not a coincidence that Gaza became a scorched earth where people cannot access care or food, but the result of a plan for the total destruction of a people. His analysis evidently made him "unwelcome" in Germany, which with intolerable arbitrariness issued a ban for all Schengen European countries."
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.
— Ghassan Abu Sitta (@GhassanAbuSitt1) May 4, 2024
They stated that silencing witnesses to crimes "amounts to complicity with Israel's extermination plan and collusion in the physical and mental suppression with which the healthcare personnel of Gaza is also silenced", and called out media coverage regarding the kidnap and murder of surgeon Dr. Adnan Al Bursh, director of surgery at Al Shifa Hospital after being imprisoned.
"The news only leaked yesterday as Dr. Adnan's body was "seized"... having seen the physical condition of the released prisoners – emaciated, marked with deep scars - it is not malicious to think that his situation was not dissimilar. The practice of body seizure is quite widespread among Palestinian prisoners, whose family is denied the right to a dignified burial and to be able to mourn their dead."
They urged an account bu European Institutions for Dr Abu Sitta's ban from the EU and "demand that Dr Adnan Al Bursh's remains be returned to his loved ones."
As a European, I apologise to Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta for the ban to enter European countries handed out by #Germany, which has reached a new low in defending Israel's genocide, of which Dr Abu Sitta is a brave direct witness.
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) May 5, 2024
I urge Germany to reverse this shameful decision and… https://t.co/G0myUAMf2F
"Israel is carrying out a systematic genocide in Gaza by specifically and ferociously targeting doctors and journalists, people who have a voice and professional honor," they declared as they asked for the release of almost 100 doctors who "disappeared" after being taken from hospitals in Gaza.
'Stop colonialism'
Moreover, they revealed that there has been no news since December and November of Dr Ahmed Muhanna the director of Al Awda hospital and of Dr Mohammad Abu Salmiya, director of Al Shifa Hospital respectively.
They said of Dr. Abu Salmiya: "Some testimonies from released prisoners report how he has been severely tortured: his arms were broken, he was dragged with a chain and forced to eat in a bowl on the ground. Fellow prisoners also reported wounds and torture inflicted by the Israeli army on nurse Iyad Shaqura and Dr. Naheed Abu Taaimah, arrested at Nasser Hospital."
Read next: Germany banned Abu Sitta to hide genocide complicity: Pal. Conference
In the statement, a list of witnesses who are health workers was included who endured "brutal prison conditions and torture practices", such as pediatrician Dr. Said Abdulrahman Maarouf, Dr. Haytham Ahmed, Dr. Iyad Zaqout, Dr. Ahmed Abu Sabha, surgeon Dr. Mohammed Al Ron.
"Among the 400 corpses found at Al Shifa Hospital are the bodies of Dr. Yusra Maqadmeh and her son Ahmed, a plastic surgeon, Baha'a Al-Kilani, head of the maintenance department, Dr. Mohammed Zaher Al-Nono, director of the pharmaceutical department", they noted, adding: "The healthcare personnel in Gaza are struggling with the few means they have at their disposal, in very harsh working conditions to ensure that the right to life and survival are not completely suppressed in Palestine."
They concluded their statement by calling to "stand with them in this fight. Stop the genocide, stop colonialism."
Dr. Abu Sitta spent 43 days under fire in Gaza. What he witnessed during his voluntary work in the besieged Strip's hospitals left him with a lot to tell about the Israeli atrocities committed against civilians.
When he left Gaza because he could no longer perform surgeries due to a shortage of medical equipment, he decided to advocate for the Strip through other means.
