Ghassan Abu Sittah, the rector of the University of Glasgow and a British-Palestinian surgeon, is facing strong criticism after describing the war in Gaza as a “Final Solution… with Israeli hands” in a post on X (Twitter), reports The Jerusalem Post.
“Gaza is starving to death. The Final Solution is upon us. It is a US, UK, German, French Final Solution, with Israeli hands,” Abu Sittah wrote on Saturday.
His statement, equating Israeli policies with Nazi genocide, aligns with what the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) defines as antisemitic: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
Abu Sittah has previously faced criticism for praising Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorists. In 2019, he publicly lauded PFLP “martyrs” Miloud Ben Lumah and Khaled Aker. He also praised PFLP co-founder Maher Al-Yamani and, in a 2018 article for a Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper, celebrated terrorist Ahmed Jarrar, responsible for the murder of Rabbi Raziel Shevach near Nablus: “There is no weapon left in the hands of the people other than revolutionary violence,” he wrote.
When appointed rector in April 2024, Abu Sittah pledged to remove the IHRA definition of antisemitism from the university, claiming it “conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.”
The Glasgow Jewish Society (GJS) expressed alarm at his stance, warning: “A campus environment where the appointed rector seeks to redefine antisemitism against the express wishes of those directly affected by it undermines Jewish students’ sense of security.”
The group described the IHRA definition as the “gold standard” and said abandoning it would pose a “serious threat” to Jewish students.
Abu Sittah’s comments come shortly after a German court overturned his ban from entering Schengen countries, which had been imposed in April 2024 when he attempted to speak about Gaza at a Berlin conference.
The IHRA definition also regards antisemitic tropes about Jews or Israelis as puppet masters, which critics say is implied in Abu Sittah’s phrase “with Israeli hands.”
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
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