Award-winning author Sally Rooney, Deborah Levy, Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux, as well as Pulitzer winner Viet Thanh Nguyen form part of a group of twenty writers calling upon French president Emmanuel Macron to reinstate a critical evacuation initiative for Palestinian writers, scholars and artists in Gaza.
Initiative Halt Over Alleged Remarks
An emergency support scheme for writers and artists facing crises, along with a student evacuation programme, were abruptly suspended by the authorities in France at the beginning of August following a Gazan scholar’s allegedly antisemitic social media posts—an action that the petitioning writers said constituted a “group penalty”.
“As writers, we urge you to reinstate this vital program without delay, and to urge global leaders to create similar programmes”, says the appeal, delivered to Macron’s office recently.
Notable Signatories
Additional supporters 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 French government and the Collège de France in 2017 to support international scholars, researchers, intellectuals and artists stranded in dangerous conditions. It has since been used special residency permits and essential aid for individuals from Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan among other nations.
Assistance to Palestinians
Following the outbreak of conflict in Gaza in late 2023, a total of 31 Palestinian artists, authors and academics and their families have been granted refuge in France through Pause and France’s student evacuation programme.
Government Response
However, on 1 August, foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced that “all rescue operations” would continue while officials examined allegedly antisemitic statements shared by a woman scholar who had arrived in France from Gaza in July and was scheduled to begin classes at a French institute in the autumn.
“The halting of evacuation programmes because of one case of a racist social media post is a type of group retribution when all parties bound by the Genocide Conventions should be making every effort to protect Gazans from annihilation and must avoid involvement in atrocities”, the letter to the president says.