[The "Normal People" author was inaccurately accused of boycotting
the Hebrew language.] [[link removed]]

SALLY ROONEY BOYCOTTS ISRAELI "APARTHEID," REFUSES WORK WITH
PUBLISHERS  
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Lexi McMenamin
October 12, 2021
Teen Vogue
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_ The "Normal People" author was inaccurately accused of boycotting
the Hebrew language. _

Sally Rooney attends a photocall during the Edinburgh International
Book Festival on August 22, 2017 in Edinburgh, Scotland., Photo by
Simone Padovani/Awakening/GettyImages

 

Best-selling Irish author Sally Rooney, who wrote the novel behind
Hulu’s 2020 hit series _Normal People_, has announced that she will
not work with Israel-based publishers for the translation of her
latest novel, _Beautiful World, Where Are You._

In response to the news, some critics took aim at Rooney, incorrectly
claiming that the author was blocking her book from being translated
into Hebrew at all. Modan, the Israel-based publisher of Rooney’s
previous two novels, told The _Washington Post_
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that Rooney did not specify that her translation refusal was part of a
boycott. Rooney clarified in a statement
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would be “very pleased and proud” to sell the Hebrew translation
rights (which are still available) to a publisher “compliant with
the BDS movement’s institutional boycott guidelines.”

 
BDS, or Boycott, Divest, Sanctions
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Palestinian rights to refuse to financially support institutions based
in Israel or connected to the Israeli government. Rooney, who publicly
identifies as a Marxist
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previously spoke out against Israeli occupation in the spring, signing
onto “A Letter Against Apartheid”
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figures.

“I was very proud to have my previous two novels translated into
Hebrew…. Likewise, it would be an honor for me to have my latest
novel translated into Hebrew and available to Hebrew-language
readers,” Rooney shared in the new statement publicized by her
agent. “But for the moment, I have chosen not to sell these
translation rights to an Israeli-based publishing house.”

“Israel’s system of racial domination and segregation against
Palestinians meets the definition of apartheid under international
law,” Rooney’s statement continued. “The [BDS] movement is a
Palestinian-led, anti-racist, and nonviolent grassroots campaign
calling for an economic and cultural boycott of complicit Israeli
companies and institutions in response to the apartheid system and
other grave human rights violations…. I am responding to the call
from Palestinian civil society, including all major Palestinian trade
unions and writers’ unions.”

 
Leaders of the BDS movement applauded Rooney for the boycott.
“Rooney joins countless international authors in supporting the
institutional cultural boycott of Israel’s complicit publishing
sector, just as progressive artists once supported the boycott of
apartheid South Africa,” said the Palestinian Campaign for the
Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel in a statement
[[link removed]]. “We note
with pride the historic solidarity expressed by Irish cultural figures
with the Palestinan struggle for freedom, justice, and equality.”
Ireland has a particularly vibrant solidarity campaign with Palestine;
earlier this year, it became the first country in the European Union
to decree Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories as “de
facto annexation.”
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Rooney’s statement was met with support from those active in
Palestinian solidarity work globally, such as the organization Jewish
Voice for Peace, that tweeted in support
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production is not separate from the political systems of apartheid and
it is therefore a worthy target of boycott.” 

The progressive Jewish solidarity group If Not Now demanded a
retraction from outlets that previously published the news of
Rooney’s refusal and accused her of antisemitism. “There is no
excuse for yesterday’s relentless smear campaign that deliberately
twisted the facts in order to make it seem as if Sally Rooney’s
legitimate political decision not to work with an Israeli publishing
house was an antisemitic refusal to translate her novel into
Hebrew,” If Not Now posted on Twitter
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As noted by _The Guardian_
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Rooney is not the first acclaimed author to refuse the publication
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of her works in Israel. In 2012, for example, Alice Walker
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refused to have her acclaimed 1982 novel _The Color Purple_ published
in Israel.

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