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Award-winning author Sally Rooney, Deborah Levy, Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux, as well as Pulitzer recipient Viet Thanh Nguyen form part of 20 authors calling upon French president Emmanuel Macron to reinstate a critical evacuation initiative for Palestinian writers, academics and artists in Gaza.

Programme Suspension Over Disputed Comments

The Pause programme for writers and artists facing crises, along with a academic rescue effort, were abruptly suspended by the authorities in France in early August over a Gazan scholar’s reportedly hateful social media posts—an action that the letter-writing authors said amounted to a “group penalty”.

“As writers, we urge you to restore this lifeline without delay, and to call on global leaders to establish comparable initiatives”, says the appeal, delivered to Macron’s office on Friday.

Prominent Supporters

Further signatories comprise Nobel winners 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 and Rashid Khalidi.

Background of the Programme

The Pause programme was set up by the French government and the prestigious academic institution in 2017 to support international scholars, researchers, intellectuals and cultural figures who find themselves in emergency situations. The program has provided special residency permits and essential aid for people from Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan and other countries.

Impact on Gaza

Since the start of the war in Gaza in late 2023, a group of thirty-one Palestinian artists, writers and academics and their families have been granted refuge in France via Pause and France’s student evacuation programme.

Government Response

However, on 1 August, top diplomat Jean-Noël Barrot announced that “all rescue operations” would proceed while officials examined disputed anti-Jewish comments posted by a female student who had arrived in France from Gaza in July and was due to start attending classes at Sciences Po Lille University this fall.

“This suspension of rescue efforts because of a single incident of a racist social media post is a form of group retribution at a time when all signatories to the Genocide Conventions should be making every effort to save Palestinians from destruction and should refuse to be complicit in crimes against humanity”, the letter to the president says.