Sally Rooney, Esteemed writer Deborah Levy, Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux, as well as Pulitzer winner Viet Thanh Nguyen are among 20 authors urging France's leader Emmanuel Macron to reinstate a critical evacuation initiative for Palestinian writers, academics and creatives in Gaza.
Programme Suspension Due to Alleged Remarks
An emergency support scheme for authors and creatives in emergency situations, along with a student evacuation programme, were suddenly halted by the French government at the beginning of August over a Gazan scholar’s allegedly antisemitic online remarks—an action that the letter-writing authors said amounted to a “group penalty”.
“As writers, we strongly encourage you to restore this lifeline without delay, and to call on global leaders to create similar programmes”, says the appeal, delivered to the Élysée Palace on Friday.
Prominent Supporters
Further signatories include Nobel laureates Abdulrazak Gurnah and JMG Le Clézio, as well as Anne Enright, Leïla Slimani, Madeleine Thien, Édouard Louis, Isabella Hammad, Didier Eribon, Naomi Klein, Max Porter, Alain Damasio, Mathias Énard, Kapka Kassabova, Karim Kattan plus Rashid Khalidi.
Initiative’s Origins
This assistance effort was set up by the national authorities and the Collège de France in 2017 to help foreign researchers, researchers, intellectuals and artists who find themselves in dangerous conditions. It has since been used special residency permits and practical support for people from Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan and other countries.
Impact on Gaza
Following the outbreak of conflict in Gaza in late 2023, a total of 31 Gazan creatives, authors and academics and their families have been granted refuge in France through Pause and France’s student evacuation programme.
Official Reaction
Yet, on 1 August, foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced that “all rescue operations” would continue while authorities were investigating disputed anti-Jewish comments shared by a female student who had entered the country from Gaza in July and was due to start attending classes at a French institute this fall.
“The halting of rescue efforts on the basis of a single incident of a racist social media post is a form of collective punishment when all parties bound by the Genocide Conventions should be doing their utmost to save Palestinians from destruction and should refuse to be complicit in atrocities”, the appeal addressed to Macron says.
