On Tuesday, the Irish Bestseller author Sally Rooney (30) released a statement where she said that she will not allow her current book to be translated into Hebrew due to Israel’s “system of racial domination and segregation against Palestinians.”
The statement was issued through her literary representatives, the Wylie Agency. Rooney said that she hoped to eventually find a Hebrew-language translator for “Beautiful World, Where Are You,” which came out last month, but will not do so through an Israeli publisher.
Rooney’s earlier novels, the bestsellers “Normal People” and “Conversations With Friends,” were released in Hebrew through Modan Publishing House.
“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 U.N.-stipulated rights of the Palestinian people,” said Rooney.
In her statement, Rooney also made reference to a couple of reports — by Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem and New York-based Human Rights Watch — that found Israel to be guilty of the international crime of apartheid because of discriminatory policies toward Palestinians within its own borders and in the occupied territories.
These reports, Rooney said, “confirmed what Palestinian human rights groups have long been saying: Israel’s system of racial domination and segregation against Palestinians meets the definition of apartheid under international law.”
Rooney also praised the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement against Israeli businesses, cultural institutions and universities. The BDS seeks to end Israel’s occupation of lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war and what it describes as discrimination against Israel’s Arab minority. It also calls for the “right of return” for millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to homes their ancestors fled or were expelled from in the 1948 war over Israel’s creation.
Rooney, one of the most popular writers, happens to be the latest prominent public figure to embrace the boycott movement.