Two Israeli major bookstores said books by Sally Rooney will no longer be sold by them, after Rooney’s decision not to sell translation rights for her most recent novel to an Israeli publisher in support of the BDS movement and the Palestinian rights, Quds News Network reported.
It has been reported that Rooney’s novels were previously available from Steimatzky and Tzomet Sefarim, but the books have now been removed from their websites, and will be pulled from physical shops too. The retailers have more than 200 branches between them.
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Last month, the Irish author had turned down a bid by Israeli publisher Modan for the rights to translate her book ‘Beautiful World, Where Are You.’ However, she said that if she “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.”
“For the moment, I have chosen not to sell these translation rights to an Israeli-based publishing house,” Rooney added.
“I understand that not everyone will agree with my decision, but I simply do not feel it would be right for me 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.”
Rooney cited “damning” reports by global Human Rights Watch and Israel’s leading human rights group, B’Tselem, that exposed “Israel’s system of racial domination and segregation against Palestinians” as motivating factors in her decision.
Israeli media and pro-Israel activists had also accused Rooney of antisemitism and had said that she boycotted Hebrew rather than Israel.