Irish author refuses to sell translation rights to Israeli publisher

In a statement released on Tuesday, Sally Rooney explained her decision concerning her work that was released in September under the title Beautiful World, Where Are You that shot to the top of the UK book charts, The Guardian reported.

The statement expressed her desire to support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS).

The BDS is a transnational, Palestinian-led organization that works to end international support for the Israeli regime’s oppression of Palestinians and pressures Tel Aviv to comply with the international law.

Palestinian-led movement BDS is calling on nations and companies to boycott the Dubai Expo 2020 which kicked off in the UAE earlier this month.

In the statement, Rooney did not hesitate to compare the Israeli regime with the apartheid regime that used to run South Africa.

Many regimes other than Israel “are guilty of grievous human rights abuses. This was also true of South Africa during the campaign against apartheid there,” she wrote.

She went on to acknowledge that not everyone will agree with her, but that she did not feel it would be right to collaborate with an Israeli company “that does not publicly distance itself from apartheid and support the UN-stipulated rights of the Palestinian people.”

Rooney, meanwhile, acknowledged that she was taking the decision in response to a call by the Palestinian civil society, including all major Palestinian trade unions and writers’ unions.