British-Palestinian doctor is not allowed to enter the Netherlands due to Schengen registration

The reason for the ban confirmed on Thursday is unclear. MPs Kati Piri (GroenLinks-PvdA) and Jan Paternotte (D66) asked parliamentary questions on Friday to outgoing Minister Hanke Bruins Slot (Foreign Affairs, CDA) about the refusal. They want to know why the Netherlands has not made an exception to the Schengen ban for Abu-Sittah.

The ministry refers to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) of the Ministry of Justice and Security. The spokesperson there says that no announcements are made about individual cases. When someone is identified in the Schengen Information System SIS, the IND says it adheres to the agreement that in principle access to that person can be refused.

Anti-Semitic

Last month, Abu-Sittah was scheduled to speak at a conference in Berlin about his work as a doctor in Gaza. The international meeting, which called for action against ‘German assistance to genocide in Gaza’, was said by critics to be anti-Semitic in nature. Two hours after it started, the meeting was stopped by the police. Germany is a staunch ally of Israel.

Abu-Sittah would come to the Netherlands between May 15 and 17 at the invitation of the Palestinian Mission in The Hague. He had agreements with the House of Representatives, the OPCW – an international organization against the use of chemical weapons – and had planned lectures in, among others, Pakhuis De Zwijger in Amsterdam.

In his own words, he witnessed genocide committed by Israel in Gaza. He worked as a volunteer in Palestinian hospitals during the first months of the war in Gaza and could confirm Israel’s use of white phosphorus. The International Court of Justice in The Hague has called on Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza. The court is still investigating whether the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention has been violated.

Shocking

The Rights Forum, which organized the lecture in De Zwijger, says on X that it finds Abu-Sittah’s refusal ‘shocking and completely unacceptable’. According to an announcement from the organization, Abu-Sittah wanted to speak as “a witness to the deliberate destruction of healthcare in Gaza as part of Israel’s genocidal war.”

MPs Piri and Paternotte believe that the Netherlands, as a host country of international organizations, has ‘a special responsibility’ to provide access to witnesses, they write in their parliamentary questions. They want to know before May 15 whether the minister shares their opinion.

Abu-Sittah (55) is rector at the University of Glasgow. He was in The Hague in January for a meeting with the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, which may want to issue an arrest warrant against Israeli leaders. This angered Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Criminal Court prosecutes individual persons, the Court of Appeal settles disputes between states.