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Sally Rooney, Deborah Levy, Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux, as well as Pulitzer recipient Viet Thanh Nguyen are among 20 authors calling upon France's leader Emmanuel Macron to reinstate a critical evacuation initiative for Palestinian writers, academics and artists in Gaza.

Programme Suspension Due to Disputed Comments

The Pause programme for writers and artists in emergency situations, as well as a academic rescue effort, were abruptly suspended by the French government at the beginning of August over a Gazan scholar’s allegedly antisemitic online remarks—a decision that the petitioning writers described as constituted a “collective punishment”.

“As writers, we strongly encourage you to reinstate this vital program without delay, and to urge global leaders to create similar programmes”, states the appeal, delivered to the Élysée Palace recently.

Prominent Supporters

Further signatories include Nobel laureates Abdulrazak Gurnah and JMG Le Clézio, along with Anne Enright, Leïla Slimani, Madeleine Thien, Édouard Louis, Isabella Hammad, Didier Eribon, Naomi Klein, Max Porter, Alain Damasio, Mathias Énard, Kapka Kassabova, Karim Kattan and Rashid Khalidi.

Initiative’s Origins

This assistance effort was set up by the national authorities and the Collège de France in 2017 to support foreign researchers, scientists, thinkers and cultural figures stranded in dangerous conditions. It has since been used French talent visas and essential aid for individuals from Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan and other countries.

Assistance to Palestinians

Following the outbreak of conflict in Gaza in October 2023, a total of 31 Palestinian artists, authors and scholars along with relatives have been granted refuge in France via Pause and France’s student evacuation programme.

Official Reaction

However, on August 1st, top diplomat Jean-Noël Barrot announced that “no evacuation of any kind” would continue while authorities were investigating allegedly antisemitic statements posted by a woman scholar who had arrived in France from Gaza in July and was due to start attending classes at Sciences Po Lille University this fall.

“The halting of evacuation programmes because of one case of a racist social media post is a form of collective punishment at a time when all parties bound by the Genocide Conventions should be making every effort to save Palestinians from annihilation and should refuse to be complicit in atrocities”, the letter addressed to Macron says.