Secret consultation documents finally released after the Morning Star’s two-year freedom of information battle show the Home Office misrepresented public opinion, claiming support for policies that most respondents actually strongly criticised as dangerous and unfair, writes SOLOMON HUGHES

LAST THURSDAY, April 11 2024, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, the British-Palestinian war surgeon, gave his first address as the newly appointed rector of Glasgow University, chosen in recognition of his work at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
The following day he flew to Berlin, where he had been invited to address a major conference about Palestine. On arrival, he was taken away by police, interrogated for several hours and eventually told he had to leave Germany and wouldn’t be allowed to return until at least the end of April.
Any attempt to speak to the conference via Zoom could result in a fine or even a year’s prison sentence. By the time he was released, he couldn’t have taken part in the conference anyway, since it had been already invaded by at least 900 police and closed down. Berlin’s mayor said that it was “intolerable” that the conference was taking place at all.


