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Sally Rooney: BDS movement explained after author refuses Israeli publisher for Hebrew translation of new book

The novelist has refused to sell the translation rights for her most recent book to an Israeli publishing house because of the plight of Palestinian people

Sally Rooney has sparked controversy – but not over her latest plotline.

The novelist has refused to sell the translation rights for her most recent book, Beautiful World, Where Are You, to an Israel-based publishing house because of the plight of Palestinian people, claiming the business does not “publicly distance itself from apartheid”.

In expressing her solidarity with Palestinians, the acclaimed Irish author is supporting the divisive Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

What is the BDS movement?

Inspired by the anti-apartheid campaign against South Africa in the 80s, BDS is a Palestinian-led movement founded in 2005. It seeks justice for those involved in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

By imposing economic, cultural and academic boycotts on Israel, it aims to pressure the country over its treatment of Palestinians and urges the Israeli government to recognise their rights, and end what many Palestinians see as an apartheid system.

“BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity,” says the movement.

“Israel is occupying and colonising Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes,” it claims, urging Israel to comply with international law and UN sanctions.

Ronnie Olesker, an associate professor in the Government Department at St Lawrence University in New York, who teaches courses on International Relations and Middle East Politics, said that BDS calls “on individuals and firms to divest from Israel and for states to sanction it for its consistent violation of international law and the human rights of Palestinians.”

She said that while the movement had not taken hold among political and economic elites, “it has gained support among civil society, and especially on American and British campuses among academics and students”.

Rooney, she added, is “the latest artist to refuse to engage culturally with Israel by refusing to sell the translation rights of her latest novel to an Israeli publisher.”

How did Sally Rooney become involved?

Rooney, 30, turned down an Israel-based publishing house that wanted to translate her third novel, published earlier this year, into Hebrew.

The author said her decision against selling the rights to publishing house Modan came after high-profile human rights groups said that “Israel’s system of racial domination and segregation against Palestinians meets the definition of apartheid under international law”.

Acknowledging that not everyone would agree with her, Rooney said she did not feel it would be right “under the present circumstances to accept a new contract with an Israeli company that does not publicly distance itself from apartheid and support the UN-stipulated rights of the Palestinian people”.

Her decision has caused controversy, with one Israeli scholar writing that she was “surprised and saddened” that Rooney had excluded a group of readers.

The author’s statement clarified that she would be happy to have the book translated under the right circumstances.

“The Hebrew-language translation rights to my new novel are still available, and if I can find a way to sell these rights that is compliant with the BDS movement’s institutional boycott guidelines, I will be very pleased and proud to do so,” she said.

“In the meantime I would like to express once again my solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom, justice and equality.”

Rooney’s previous two best-selling novels, Conversations With Friends and Normal People, were both translated into Hebrew by Katyah Benovits and published in Israel by Modan.

Who supports BDS?

Rooney is not alone in supporting the BDS movement, which has grown in popularity around the world. The Irish government has shown support for a ban on the sale of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Earlier this year, Rooney was one of hundreds of writers and artists who signed A Letter Against Apartheid, which called for “an immediate and unconditional cessation of Israeli violence against Palestinians”.

The letter said: “Apartheid must be dismantled. No one is free until we are all free.”

South African bishop and veteran anti-apartheid campaigner Desmond Tutu also backs the BDS campaign, saying in 2014: “My conscience compels me to stand with the Palestinians as they seek to use the same tactics of non-violence to further their efforts to end the oppression associated with the Israeli Occupation.”

Others see the BDS movement as anti-Semitic.

Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the opposition in Israel and the country’s former prime minister, previously said it was an international attempt to “blacken” the nation’s name.

In 2017, the government passed a law to ban entry to anyone who supports the boycotts.

Prof Olesker says Israel has not been severely affected, either economically or diplomatically by the BDS movement, but it sees it as a national security threat.

The Trump administration was also against the movement, with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo once calling it a “cancer”.

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