Campaigning university chief inspired by Bobby Sands

The new rector of Glasgow University, a well-known British-Palestinian surgeon, has cited IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in an inspiring first official speech.

A former student at Glasgow University, Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who spent 43 days working at hospitals in Gaza to treat the wounded amid the Israeli genocide.

After being appointed this month, Dr Abu Sittah said: “I aim to be the voice of students, to give them an opportunity to express their utter disapproval of the genocide being committed in Gaza.

“I will echo the demands on campus calling for divestment from the arms trade.”

Addressing an official university event, he concluded his speech with the words: “I want to end with hope, and in the words of the immortal Bobby Sands, our revenge will be the laughter of our children. Hasta la victoria siempre (ever onwards to victory).”

Sinn Féin President Mary-Lou McDonald was among those sharing a video clip of Prof Abu Sittah’s address, commenting: “An incredible achievement…and powerful expression of global solidarity with Palestinian freedom.”

However, Scottish unionist broadcaster Andrew Neil hit out at Prof Sittah, comparing him to “a juvenile student politician”, petulantly adding: “Sands is not immortal, he’s dead”.

The appointment of Dr Abu-Sittah as rector is symbolic: the position was once held by ‘Lord’ Balfour, the British statesman behind the 1917 Balfour Declaration expressing support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” that would propel the colonisation and settlement that became ‘Israel’.

On Friday, Dr Sittah said he was denied entry to Germany to take part in a conference on Palestine.

He posted on social media that he arrived at Berlin airport before being stopped at passport control, where he was held for several hours and then told he had to return to Britain.

Airport police said he was refused entry due to “the safety of the people at the conference and public order,” Dr Sittah said.

The appointment comes amid dismay over the failure of the Irish establishment to take greater action against the continuing Holocaust in Gaza which has already cost the lives of some 33,000 innocent civilians, mostly women and children.

Sinn Fein councillor Daithí Doolan called on Irish politicians to “show leadership at home and abroad” in holding Israel to account for its war crimes.

Mr Doolan said that the Dublin government must do more, including ending its obstruction of Sinn Féin’s Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill, and that no Irish MEP should vote in support of Ursula von der Leyen’s bid for a second term as President of the European Commission.

“Ursula von der Leyen’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has been a mark of shame for the European Union. That shame will be shared by any Irish MEP who endorses her for a second term,” he said.

But, on the eve of Palestinian Prisoners Day, when the people of Palestine and their supporters around the world highlight the abduction, imprisonment and torture of thousands of political prisoners currently held in jails and internment camps, Sinn Féin has itself ben urged to do more for Palestine.

Lasair Dhearg hit out at Sinn Fein’s failure to address the issue during Srt Patrick’s Daty events in the US last month and urged it to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which has been gaining momentum, especially in West Belfast.

Sinn Féin support for the campaign “would obviously have an impact but aside from public rallies and the odd statement from time to time, they have had very little to say about the genocide in Gaza,” Lasair Dhearg said in a statement.

“Sinn Féin, if they so wished, could get their many elected representatives to go to the management of the major stores that sell Israeli goods and pressure them to remove them from their shelves. They refuse to do so. The question has to be asked, why? Is it a case of avoiding embarrassment to their sponsors in the US, or is it a case of placating their partners on Stormont who support the genocide? Only Sinn Féin can answer that. In public they may pay lip service to the Palestinian people, but they could and should, be doing a lot more.”

Urgent Appeal