France's recognition of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations this week has led to calls for it to reinstate evacuations from Gaza, which were halted on 1 August following antisemitic posts by a Gazan student at Lille University. The suspension has left scientists, artists and students who were due to arrive in France on special visas in limbo.
Of the hundreds of people evacuated from Gaza to France since the conflict in the enclave broke out in October 2023, 73 have come as part of a partly state-funded humanitarian programme known as Pause.
Run by the prestigious Collège de France research institute, Pause provides special one-year visas to artists and scientists in danger.
Since 2017, it has supported more than 700 people from more than 40 countries, including Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan. For Palestinians in Gaza, it represents one of the few pathways to safety.
'A life jacket'
"The Pause programme was literally a life jacket for us," says Abu Joury, a well-known Gazan rapper who arrived in the town of Angers in western France in January, with his wife and three children.
Sponsored by a local organisation, Al Khamanjati, he has been able to provide financial stability and security for his family – something he says has become impossible in Gaza.
But that life jacket is no longer available.
On 1 August, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced that "no evacuation of any kind" would take place until further notice.
The trigger was a Palestinian student at Sciences Po Lille who was accused of sharing antisemitic statements in 2023, and was subsequently expelled to Qatar.
The student was not part of the Pause programme, but the decision to halt all evacuations has left more than 120 people – 25 approved candidates and their families – stranded in what the UN has described as genocidal conditions.
France halts Gaza evacuations over antisemitic posts by Palestinian student
"They’ve been waiting for months and are sending us constant messages calling for help,” says Marion Gués Lucchini, head of international diplomacy for the Pause programme. "They’re saying: 'why are we being condemned for comments made by just one person? Why have we been abandoned?'"
The decision is unprecedented, Gués Lucchini says. "Because of a single person, all the others are condemned to remain in Gaza.
"We've been around for eight years. We've had people from all over the world, including countries where there may be sensitivities – Russia, Iran and so on. We've never had a security problem, we've never had anyone who was supposedly close to a terrorist group. Never."
She adds that all Pause candidates are subject to rigorous screening by four different ministries, including security checks by the Interior Ministry.
Listen to an audio report featuring Abu Joury on the Spotlight of France podcast:
‘Collective punishment’
After President Emmanuel Macron recognised Palestinian statehood at the UN on Monday, the French government now faces mounting pressure to reinstate evacuations.
A collective of Palestinian and migrant rights groups has filed a case with the Conseil d’Etat – France’s top court – claiming the suspension of evacuations for Gazans is in breach of the constitution.
Last week, some 20 acclaimed writers, including French Nobel laureates Annie Ernaux and J.M.G. Le Clézio, called on Macron to "restore this lifeline" as soon as possible.
“This suspension of evacuation programmes on the basis of one case of a racist social media post is a form of collective punishment at a time when all signatories to the Genocide Convention should be doing their utmost to save Palestinians from annihilation and should refuse to be complicit in crimes against humanity,” they wrote in an open letter.
While evacuating only writers, artists and researchers was “inadequate and even cruel in the context of the killings and destruction in Gaza”, they underlined that “today this programme is one of the only ways by which a few people in Gaza can be saved from genocide, a part of which is scholasticide".
The authors called on France to “follow through on its proclaimed humanist values”.
Israeli ambassador slams French recognition of Palestine as ‘historic mistake’ on RFI
'I fear for my friend'
Mathieu Yon, a 48-year-old fruit farmer from southern France, has become an unlikely advocate for Palestinian evacuation rights.
On Wednesday he took up position on a bench in front of the Foreign Ministry holding a sign addressed to Barrot: "Monsieur le ministre, resume the reception of Gazans."
Around six months ago, Yon struck up a friendship with Gazan poet Alaa al-Qatrawi after reading her poem “I’m not well”, about losing her four children in an Israeli bombing in December 2023.
“She lost her four children and yet she’s still full of love and without any anger or aggression,” he says. “I fear for my dear friend.”
He, his wife and two friends have raised the necessary €48,000 to cover al-Qatrawi’s year-long residency.
They have work and accommodation lined up for her in their home town of Dieulefit, north of Avignon. "Everything is in place," Yon said, hoping that his protest will see her file, handed in on 26 August, treated as a matter of urgency.
As Gaza aid flotilla comes under attack, NGOs urge Europe to act
From a refugee camp in Gaza, al-Qatrawi describes the constant danger: "Every Palestinian living now in Gaza is at risk of being killed at any second and in any place you can think of. You are exposed to assassination attempts throughout the day. And if you survive, you think about how you are going to survive the next day."
Her four children – Orchid, Kenan, Yamen and Carmel – were killed on 13 December, 2023. "There was a cordon around the area. The occupation [by the Israeli army] prevented ambulances from arriving," she told RFI’s sister radio station MCD.
The Ma'an collective, which helps Pause applicants, reports receiving increasingly desperate messages from Gaza.
"These are no longer calls for help, but testaments and farewells," it said in a statement. One read: "I am writing to you, and maybe my last words. We are starving and losing everything around us."
Ahmed Shamia, an architect who had been accepted by the Pause programme, was killed in bombardments on 1 May this year, just days before he was due to be evacuated.
"It was very difficult for us all," says Gués Lucchini. "It was the first time [someone selected for] the programme had died."
Conflating Gazans with terrorists
Gués Lucchini laments that a programme offering a lifeline to scientists and artists has become a target for the far right, with Pause dealing with online attacks.
“These accounts created the controversy surrounding the student [in Lille], which led to the suspension of the evacuations. Since then there have been other smear campaigns against [people selected for] the Pause programme. It’s clear there is a desire to confuse aid and support for Gazans – scientists, artists and others – with support for a terrorist group.”
The French Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, which has a controversial far-right editor, recently accused Pause of "opening the door to Hamas”.
Yon, who has Jewish ancestry and whose great-uncle was deported to Auschwitz, rejects any suggestion that Gazans pose an inherent security risk. "There are antisemitic people in Gaza. But I think there are in France, too. There are in all countries, not especially in Gaza."
He added: "This is a collective punishment without any kind of justice. In France we have the principle of presumption of innocence, but this is presumption of guilt."
France’s Foreign Ministry has not commented publicly on when evacuations of Gazans will resume. But a diplomatic source told RFI: “Since the Israeli authorities have suspended evacuations, no operation is possible at this stage."
French services are effectively dependent on local authorities, in this case Israel, who grant or deny exit permits based on lists submitted by the French authorities.
Macron on Gaza and Ukraine: diplomacy, hostages and European security at stake
Race against time
For those still waiting, time is running out. "Every day that passes is another day that we take the risk that someone supported by a French national programme will die,” Gués Lucchini warns.
Joury could be considered one of the lucky ones. But despite finding safety and a “very warm welcome” in France, he remains haunted by those left behind – especially his mother and brother, who didn't manage to reach Egypt before Israel closed the Rafah crossing.
"I'm physically out. But my mind is still in Gaza. My mother and my brother, I'm thinking of them all the time. My soul is still in Gaza," he said.
As Yon continues his vigil outside the Foreign Ministry, he reflects on how hard it was to tell al-Qatrawi evacuations had been halted.
“She said, ‘even if it doesn't happen, this relationship, this poetry exists. Even if the result is sad for our life, all of this poetry, all of this love, all of this kindness is real’.
“This relationship has a value in itself," Yon concludes. A lifeline of friendship – but no life jacket.
