Glasgow University’s Rector Ghassan Abu-Sittah Won’t Consider Any Alternative to Hamas in Gaza

Anti-Israel students have elected him a pro-Hamas Muslim the Rector of Glasgow University: “Media’s Darling Doctor Ghassan Abu-Sittah: Anti-Hamas Palestinians ‘Stabbed Resistance in the Back,’” by Rachel O’Donoghue, HonestReporting, March 31, 2025:

When pressed by the interviewer about possible alternatives to Hamas rule, Abu-Sittah snapped that the Palestinian Authority should focus its attention on the West Bank, pointedly rejecting the idea of any political solution in Gaza that doesn’t include Hamas. In other words, better to let Gazans suffer under Hamas tyranny than consider a future without it….

Ghassan Abu-Sittah won’t consider any alternative to Hamas. He rejects the possibility of the Palestinian Authority taking over Gaza; apparently the PA’s “Pay-For-Slay” program is not enough to earn the support of Abu-Sittah: he wants to ensure that a full-fledged terror group, and not the PA’s diluted version, remains either completely in control of Gaza, or plays a major role in that future government. There is no getting around it: Ghassan Abu-Sittah is deeply committed to Hamas.

When he was elected overwhelmingly by the morally idiotic students at Glasgow, Ghassan Abu-Sittah put out a “manifesto” describing his four main goals, as reported here: “Meet Glasgow University’s New Rector,” by Katherine McKay, Glasgow Guardian, September 18, 2024:

In his manifesto, Dr Abu-Sittah outlined his four key pledges: pressuring the University to condemn Israel’s recent actions in Gaza, calling for the University to divest from the arms trade, reinforcing existing partnerships with Palestinian universities, and replacing the IHRA definition of antisemitism that was adopted by the University of Glasgow in 2021. Along with his four key pledges, he also aims to tackle student poverty and gender-based violence….

He doesn’t appear to have any interest in improving the education offered at the University of Glasgow, or improving the lives of its students. He has only Palestine on his mind. Three of his “four key pledges” have to do with harming Israel. He wants the university to condemn Israel’s war in Gaza, wants the university to divest from the arms trade (meaning it must oppose the sale of British arms for Israel), wants to strengthen he existing inks between the University of Glasgow to Palestinian universities (and having no ties with Israeli universities), and rejecting the IHRA definition of antisemitism that the university had adopted just four years ago. Perhaps he will try to replace it with a definition of “Islamophobia.” In any case, it is clear that Abu-Sittah has no real interest in the education offered at Glasgow; he does have a great interest in enrolling the university in his campaign to harm Israel and to promote the “cause of Palestine.”

Since his landslide victory, Dr Abu-Sittah has had an eventful and turbulent summer. In April 2024, he was detained and denied entry into Germany where he was due to speak at a conference regarding the Israeli invasion in Gaza. In an attempt to enter France the following month, authorities informed Dr Abu-Sittah that Germany had enforced a Schengen-wide ban on his entry into Europe for one year.

What do you think the German authorities know about Ghassan Abu-Sittah that caused them to prevent him from entering their country? The Germans were so concerned about him that they made sure that their Schengen partners would also keep him out of their countries. There is only one plausible explanation: he has ties of sympathy, and perhaps more, to the Hamas terrorists, and the Germans are not going to admit people with such views coming to their country to spread their pro-Hamas and antisemitic venom.

Ghassan Abu-Sittah won’t consider any alternative in Gaza to rule by Hamas. He rejects the possibility of the Palestinian Authority taking over Gaza; apparently the PA’s “Pay-For-Slay” program is not enough support for terrorism to earn the imprimatur of Abu-Sittah: he wants to ensure that a full-fledged terror group, and not the PA’s diluted version, remains either completely in control of Gaza, or plays a major role in that future government. There is no getting around it: despite his outward respectability, his Harris tweeds, his prestigious academic office as the Rector of Glasgow University, Ghassan Abu-Sittah is deeply committed to the savage terrorists of Hamas. His election as Rector by dimwitted students is just one more sign of what Robert Spencer calls “shattered, staggering, dhimmi Britain.”