Smear campaign targeting the PAUSE programme at the Collège de France and the artist Raed Issa in Paris

The Collège de France’s PAUSE programme and the Palestinian artist Raed Issa have been the target of a media smear campaign led in particular by Audrey Marchand, a former candidate for Reconquête and an activist with the Némésis collective. This controversy comes against a backdrop of campaigning to welcome Palestinian researchers and artists to France who are facing delays in evacuation and visa processing under the PAUSE programme. Several academic institutions and collectives had subsequently called on the French authorities to facilitate their reception in safe and dignified conditions.