Dozens of prominent writers and poets have voiced their support for a bestselling Irish novelist’s decision to reject a contractual offer with an Israeli publisher over the regime’s decades-long acts of aggression and injustice against Palestinians.
Faraan: Seventy outstanding authors, poets and playwrights in a letter on Monday backed Sally Rooney’s decision not to sell translation rights to an Israeli publisher, describing it as an “exemplary response to the mounting injustices inflicted on Palestinians.”
Last month, Rooney turned down an offer to sell Hebrew translation rights of her new novel — Beautiful World, Where Are You — to the Israeli publisher Modan, which had published her previous two books, over her stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The bestselling Irish novelist said at the time that she supported the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, and that she opposed collaboration with an Israeli company “that does not publicly distance itself from apartheid” and supported the UN-stipulated rights of the Palestinian people.
The BDS is a transnational, Palestinian-led organization that works to end international support for the Israeli regime’s oppression of Palestinians and pressures Tel Aviv to comply with international law.
In the letter organized by Artists for Palestine, a UK-based cultural network supporting Palestinian rights, such distinguished names as Kamila Shamsie, Monica Ali, Kevin Barry, Rachel Kushner, Geoff Dyer, Pankaj Mishra, Carmen Callil and Ahdaf Soueif are seen.
“Palestinian artists have asked their international colleagues to end complicity in Israel’s violations of their human rights, and this for many of us is a clear ethical obligation,” the authors wrote. “Sally Rooney’s refusal to sign a contract with a mainstream Israeli publisher… is therefore an exemplary response to the mounting injustices inflicted on Palestinians.”
The letter also pointed to Human Rights Watch’s conclusion in April that Israel is committing the crimes of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians.
The letter highlighted the fact that Rooney was one of more than 16,000 signatories to “A Letter Against Apartheid” in May, calling for “an immediate and unconditional cessation of Israeli violence against Palestinians.”
Two bookshop chains with outlets both in Israel and in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank said at the time that they were pulling Rooney’s novels from their shops in retaliation.
“Like her, we will continue to respond to the Palestinian call for effective solidarity, just as millions supported the campaign against apartheid in South Africa,” the writers concluded, adding, “We will continue to support the nonviolent Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality.”
