Sally Rooney alongside Annie Ernaux Join Writers Urging French President Macron to Restart Palestinian Writers Programme
Sally Rooney, Deborah Levy, Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux, and Pulitzer recipient Viet Thanh Nguyen are among 20 authors urging French president Emmanuel Macron to reinstate a “lifeline” programme for Gazan authors, scholars and creatives from Gaza.
Programme Suspension Due to Alleged Remarks
The Pause programme for authors and creatives facing crises, along with a student evacuation programme, were suddenly halted by the authorities in France in early August following a Palestinian student’s allegedly antisemitic social media posts—a decision that the petitioning writers described as constituted a “group penalty”.
“As writers, we urge you to restore this lifeline as soon as possible, and to urge global leaders to create similar programmes”, states the appeal, which was sent to the Élysée Palace on Friday.
Notable Signatories
Further signatories include Nobel winners 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.
Background of the Programme
The Pause programme was set up by the French government in partnership with the prestigious academic institution in 2017 to help foreign researchers, researchers, intellectuals and cultural figures who find themselves in dangerous conditions. The program has provided special residency permits and practical support for individuals from Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan and other countries.
Assistance to Palestinians
Since the start of the war in Gaza in late 2023, a group of thirty-one Palestinian artists, writers and scholars along with relatives have been granted refuge in France via these evacuation initiatives.
Official Reaction
Yet, on August 1st, foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced that “all rescue operations” would continue while authorities were investigating allegedly antisemitic statements posted by a female student who had entered the country from Gaza in July and was due to start attending classes at Sciences Po Lille University in the autumn.
“The halting of evacuation programmes because of a single incident involving offensive online content is a type of collective punishment at a time when all signatories to the international genocide laws should be making every effort to protect Gazans from destruction and must avoid involvement in crimes against humanity”, the letter addressed to Macron says.
