Sally Rooney Books Pulled From Biggest Israeli Bookstores After Hebrew Translation Boycott

© AFP 2023 / AMY SUSSMANPASADENA, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 17: Sally Rooney of "Normal People" speaks during the Hulu segment of the 2020 Winter TCA Press Tour at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on January 17, 2020 in Pasadena, California.
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 17: Sally Rooney of Normal People speaks during the Hulu segment of the 2020 Winter TCA Press Tour at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on January 17, 2020 in Pasadena, California. - Sputnik International, 1920, 05.11.2021
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The author refused to have her new book, Beautiful World, Where Are You, be translated into Hebrew in order to support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, a campaign that works "to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians".
Books by Irish author Sally Rooney have been pulled from the shelves of two Israeli bookstores after her decision not to have her recent novel translated by an Israeli publisher.
Her works, which used to be available at two of Israel's biggest bookstores, Steimatzky and Tzomet Sefarim, have been removed from their websites, and will be withdrawn from physical shops shortly. The companies have over 200 branches in Israel.
The boycott by Israeli booksellers come a month after Rooney refused to the rights to translate her book Beautiful World, Where Are You, to Israeli publisher Modan. She made the decision citing Palestinian human rights concerns.
Sally Rooney speaks onstage during the Hulu Panel at Winter TCA 2020 at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on January 17, 2020 in Pasadena, California - Sputnik International, 1920, 12.10.2021
Pro-Palestinian Novelist Sally Rooney Controversially Refuses to Have Novel Translated Into Hebrew
The author said that while she was "very proud" that her two previous novels had been translated into Hebrew, "for the moment, I have chosen not to sell these translation rights to an Israeli-based publishing house".
She explained that the decision was made out of solidarity with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls to end international support for "Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law".
According to Rooney, she couldn't "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".
She added that it would "be an honour" to have her new novel translated into Hebrew by a company which shared her stance.
Israel has repeatedly blasted the BDS movement as anti-Semitic, saying that it opposes the country's very existence.
While Rooney's move has faced much backlash in Israel, with the country's Diaspora Minister Nachman Shai calling "the cultural boycott of Israel anti-Semitism in a new guise", the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel has "warmly welcomed" her decision.
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