Raphaël Enthoven, who was temporarily removed from the program for his comments on Gaza, has been invited back to the Besançon book festival.

All that for that? After all, Raphaël Enthoven is set to travel to Besançon for the Livres dans la boucle festival (September 19-21), which heralds the arrival of autumn in the Doubs region each year. However, his visit has just been the subject of a direct, but very serious, controversy. On Thursday, September 4, Anne Vignot, the mayor of Besançon, made this announcement: Raphaël Enthoven, who was due to present his back-to-school book, "l'Albatros" (L'Observatoire), had been canceled. This was due to two sentences he posted on August 15 on X. "There are NO journalists in Gaza. Only killers, fighters, or hostage-takers with press cards."

Upon learning of this sidelining, which had been requested by the municipal majority and the communist elected officials, several writers scheduled for months said they were ready to cancel their attendance, regretfully giving up talking with the public, signing books, drinking yellow wine in the moonlight around the Franche-Comté dishes prepared by the city's booksellers who always take great care of their guests. At the head of the protest: David Foenkinos , a very popular author since "La Délicatesse" (Gallimard, 2009) and honorary president of the festival this year.

Jacques Expert , the author of famous thrillers, has also threatened to withdraw, to protest against an "attack on freedom of opinion." Anne Goscinny, who is due to host a major dictation session at Pivot, said on France-Inter that she would not tolerate "censoring someone for expressing an opinion." Prudent people like Sorj Chalandon have thought a lot. A fatalist has been found to tell us that "if we had to ban everyone who says stupid things on this subject from festivals, and there are loads of them, there wouldn't be many people left at festivals."

Many quarrels are sterile. This one is interesting and now extends beyond the literary sphere. We see observers attentive to the slightest news about Gaza defending Enthoven's right (and anyone's right) to say and write what they want, when they want. These observers found the philosopher's remarks odious. But hardly more, basically, than the previous ones – for example, when he said in May 2024 on BFMTV that Israel is "a tiny state that is a democratic exception in a world of brutes." However, they did not approve of his exclusion from a book festival. This is even the case for Laurent Dauré, an independent journalist who works to bring into public debate the concept of "facilitator of genocide," which he has used several times on the website Off Investigation to designate intellectuals, elected officials, and other public figures who allegedly accompany the ongoing killing in Gaza with their words. This is also the case for Dominique Pradalier, president of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), which federation, with its affiliate Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), will file a complaint against Raphaël Enthoven for "public incitement to racial hatred and the propagation of false news." " However, blocking his path was not a good idea for her. "We keep him, we find him someone to contradict us... I would find that much better," she told us.

In Besançon, at the Sandales d'Empédocle, where people have been milling around all day wondering how this affair will turn out, the bookseller, Natacha Siloume, summed up the general mood well: "Raphaël Enthoven has the right to write what he wants. Others have the right to respond what they want." In any case, David Foenkinos spoke this morning with the mayor of Besançon. He told her that if by chance the philosopher were rescheduled, everyone would come back. It's done. "And all the authors return to the salon," he told us nicely.