Book by author who shunned Israeli publishing house available as translation by Chinese state-owned firm
Irish writer who refused to authorise Hebrew version of latest novel for political reasons explains decision
SALLY ROONEY’S last novel was printed by a state-owned Chinese publishing house, it has emerged.
The Irish author provoked a backlash this week after she refused an offer by the Israeli publisher Modan to translate her latest book, Beautiful World, Where Are You, into Hebrew. The 30-year-old released a statement defending her decision, insisting that while it would be an “honour” to have her latest book published in Hebrew, she would not give the translation rights to an Israelibased publishing house, citing “Israel’s oppression of Palestinians” as the rea- son for her decision.
It has now emerged that a Chinese translation of Normal People has been available to purchase on Amazon since July after it was published by the Shanghai Translation Publishing House, which is approved by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Four of the company’s senior executives are CCP members.
The publishing house says on its website that it is “the largest comprehensive publishing house in China specialising in translation, mainly publishing translations of foreign literary and commercial fiction, humanities and social science”.
It is not clear if the Chinese company secured the rights from Rooney before publishing the translated text.
China has been accused of serious human rights abuses over the past few years, perhaps most seriously the forced internment of Uyghur Muslims in the province of Xinjiang. Reports have emerged of Uyghurs being arrested and subjected to rape, torture and sleep deprivation. Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs have gone missing, according to Human Rights Watch.
All book publishers in China are effectively state owned and translations of foreign texts are routinely censored to omit or tone down political or sexually explicit passages.
The Israeli foreign ministry this week accused Rooney of impeding peace in the Middle East, describing her stance as “narrow minded”.
Rooney responded to the controversy, explaining it was in keeping with her support for the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls for an economic and cultural boycott of “complicit” Israeli companies and institutions.
She said: “Of course, many states other than Israel are guilty of grievous human rights abuses. This was also true of South Africa during the campaign against apartheid there.
“In this case, I am responding to the call from Palestinian civil society, including all major Palestinian trade unions and writers’ unions.
“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.”
‘I am responding to the call from Palestinian civil society, including all major trade and writers’ unions’
It is surely ridiculous to believe that a book could be translated into Hebrew, but only if it is done in a way which complies with a boycott of Israel. Why would a publisher pay for the translation but not then sell it in the only country where the language is widely read? But that is exactly what the author, Sally Rooney – a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, who has refused to allow an Israeli company to publish her new book in Hebrew – appears to think.
No one would say that the Israelipalestinian conflict is not important, but with 200 territorial disputes around the world, why do so many only seem to campaign against the world’s only Jewish state, a tiny country of just nine million people?
Books are routinely translated into Mandarin and sold in China, a country accused of genocide against the Uyghurs. Few object to cultural ties with Russia, where the government imprisons opponents at home and murders them abroad. Qatar, a country closer to a medieval theocracy than a modern democracy, is hosting next year’s World Cup. But for too many, particularly on the Left, the only country they want to boycott is the only Jewish one.
It is a disgrace to label the Middle East’s only real democracy an apartheid state. Worse, it is a grotesque slur to call Holocaust survivors who escaped Europe to establish a refuge from centuries of pogroms or the Jews who fled persecution in Middle Eastern countries “settler colonialists”, as many BDS activists routinely do. In apartheid South Africa, the entire government, public services and the economy were segregated along racial lines. In Israel, there are equal rights for all, guaranteed by law. Israel’s Arab party now forms part of the governing coalition. So much for apartheid.
The Israel obsessives hold Israel to standards never applied to other countries but utter not a word about the genocidal terrorists of Hamas who are opposed to any peace agreement, want to wipe Israel off the map, and murder the Jews who live there. Hamas fires thousands of rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians and it is only thanks to Israel’s Iron Dome missile defences that thousands are not killed. The boycotters seemingly would prefer Iron Dome was not funded so the Hamas missiles could hit their civilian targets.
People in the West need to understand that Hamas rules Gaza in exactly the same way Islamic State ran the land it controlled. Women are treated terribly, gay men are killed, and opponents are arrested and executed. Hamas and IS are merely different faces of the same Islamist threat that hates the West, our allies in the Middle East and everything we stand for. If you want to understand why there isn’t a peace process, examining the role played by these brutal terrorists is a good place to start.
We need to be clear about the BDS campaign as well. It calls for a complete sporting, cultural, and academic boycott of Israel; for international corporations and organisations to divest from the country and companies operating in it, and for international sanctions, including the end of military and trade agreements. Their goal is not to end the occupation of the West Bank or stop Israel building settlements within it, but to bring about the end of Israel itself.
That’s a destructive goal. It achieves nothing for Palestinians and brings them no closer to peace, prosperity or a state of their own. Boycott campaigns have resulted in the closure of firms employing Israelis and Palestinians side by side on the same wages and conditions. They make the prospects of peace more remote when what is needed is cooperation and coexistence, negotiation and compromise to bring people together, build trust and a peace process which can lead to two states for two peoples, with a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
This is why our approach must be to argue for closer ties, with more trade, investment and economic development between Israel, Palestine and the UK instead of promoting boycotts that will only prolong the conflict and harm the very people they claim they are trying to help. Boycotting Israel might make sanctimonious Westerners feel virtuous but does nothing to help Palestinians or bring peace.
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