LONDON: Two major Israeli bookstores have stopped selling the work of Irish author Sally Rooney after she refused an Israeli publisher’s offer to translate her new novel into Hebrew.
She said she rejected the translation from one of Israel’s largest publishers in support of calls to boycott Israel over its policies toward the Palestinians.
Her stance, announced last month, drew both praise and condemnation across social media.
On Thursday, Israeli booksellers Steimatzky and Tzomet Sefarim said they would remove Rooney’s books from their branches and online sites. The companies have more than 200 outlets across Israel.
It is the first such move since Rooney rejected an offer from Israeli publisher Modan for the rights to translate her new novel, “Beautiful World, Where Are You,” into Hebrew.
One of Rooney’s previous books, “Normal People,” was adapted into a popular BBC television series.
Rooney said she was “very proud” that her two previous novels had been translated into Hebrew, but “for the moment, I have chosen not to sell these translation rights to an Israeli-based publishing house.”
Rooney made her decision in support of the Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) movement, which aims to pressure the Israeli government into ceasing its harmful policies and actions toward the Palestinian people.
Rooney said she would not sign a 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 was met with fury by certain prominent Israeli politicians.
Israel’s Diaspora Minister Nachman Shai, said: “The cultural boycott of Israel is anti-Semitism in a new guise.”
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel said Palestinians “warmly welcomed” Rooney’s move, while others said she had been misrepresented.
The award-winning author stressed that it would still “be an honor” to have “Beautiful World, Where Are You” translated into Hebrew by a company which shared her political position.
