Sally Rooney alongside Nobel Laureate Annie Ernaux Join Writers Urging Macron to Restart Palestinian Artists Evacuation Scheme

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 urging French president Emmanuel Macron to resume a “lifeline” programme for Gazan authors, academics and creatives from Gaza.

Initiative Halt Due to Disputed Comments

The Pause programme for authors and creatives in emergency situations, along with a academic rescue effort, were suddenly halted by the authorities in France in early August following a Palestinian student’s allegedly antisemitic online remarks—a decision that the letter-writing authors said amounted to a “collective punishment”.

“In our capacity as authors, we urge you to restore this lifeline without delay, and to urge other heads of state to establish comparable initiatives”, says the letter, delivered to the Élysée Palace recently.

Notable Signatories

Further signatories comprise 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 and Rashid Khalidi.

Initiative’s Origins

This assistance effort was established by the French government in partnership with the Collège de France in 2017 to help foreign researchers, scientists, thinkers and cultural figures who find themselves in emergency situations. It has since been used special residency permits and practical support for people from Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan among other nations.

Impact on Gaza

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

Official Reaction

However, on August 1st, foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot declared that “no evacuation of any kind” would proceed while authorities were investigating allegedly antisemitic statements shared by a woman scholar who had arrived in France from Gaza during summer 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 type of group retribution at a time when all parties bound by the international genocide laws should be doing their utmost to save Palestinians from annihilation and must avoid involvement in atrocities”, the letter addressed to Macron states.