To bin the latest Sally Rooney?

[JumperandJacket]

Genuinely shocked by the news she has banned the translation of her book into Hebrew. I can see no reading of this that isn’t straightforward antisemitism. She may claim it’s a protest against the Israeli government but to equate Hebrew speakers with the government of Israel is in itself deeply racist. The only other writer I know of to have done this is Icke-fancier, Alice Walker.

Plus the book is boring as shit.

The books are hugely overrated in any case.

She's an idiot. The Israeli publisher has nothing to do with Israeli foreign policy/treatment of Palestine. Boycotting in this way shows her ignorance, and lack of understanding that just because someone speaks Hebrew, it does not mean they support Israeli policy/the occupation of Palestine.

Hebrew is spoken by most Jews, including those many who don't even live in Israel. However, to those citing antisemitism, no, it's not at all. It's just ignorance on Rooney's part.

I've been a long time supporter of the Palestinians.
Over 30 years as I have personal connections.

For years I have seen attempts to take any criticism of the Isreali Government and shut it down as anit semitism.

I thought the reported rise in anti semitism, and the Labour party in fighting, was probably just this, criticism of Isreal styled as anti semitism.

Then I started to pay closer attention to what is going on.

The focused hatred on Isreal and Jews is so disproportionate to other states you could criticise. Why?? the language used is diffrent. A diffrent standard is applied. Why?? Many people who won't speak up to criticise other states will do so loudly against Isreal. Why??

And the attacks on Jews in this country, the vile language and threats used, made me realise: anti seminitsm is on the rise again.

The fact people cannot see this desite the holocaust only happening 75 years ago is astounding.

Much more care needs to be taken to ensure this never happenes again.

Yes criticise the actions of Isreal. And I do.
But open your eyes to what is happening.

Sally Rooney is just the latest naive virue signaller to think this is the cause it's OK to join, without any reflection on why she suddenly now cares so much about this and not other things.

So many people sudeenly hate Isreal who were no where to be seen 20 years ago.
This is not an accident.

Something is happening.

@MalagaNights I dont disagree with what youve written. However, claims of anti semitism are used as to deflect legitimate criticism of Israel just as much as criticism of Israel is used as a guise for anti-semitism, in the political arena at least. The claim that you can't legitimately critize Israel unless you also criticize x, y and z is just another way of shutting down debate.

So many people sudeenly hate Isreal who were no where to be seen 20 years ago
This is not an accident

To be fair, twenty years ago Sally Rooney was only 10.

And a lot of the people pushing to take a stand against Israel are young adults.

FFS, it's so obvious those criticising her on here haven't read her actual statement. Fake news wins the day again because people fall for bullshit everytime.
She isn't boycotting the whole Hebrew language. Will you actually listen to yourselves. Idiots.

I know I've seen that for years.

But something different is happening now.

Genuine vile anti semitism is on the rise, alongside the numbers of people who now suddenly hate Isreal. Coincidence?

@MalagaNights

I know I've seen that for years.

But something different is happening now.

Genuine vile anti semitism is on the rise, alongside the numbers of people who now suddenly hate Isreal. Coincidence?

Are you accusing Sally Rooney of "Genuine vile anti semitism"?

If not, what does your poorly spelled rant have to do with the topic of this thread?

@MalagaNights

I've been a long time supporter of the Palestinians. Over 30 years as I have personal connections.

For years I have seen attempts to take any criticism of the Isreali Government and shut it down as anit semitism.

I thought the reported rise in anti semitism, and the Labour party in fighting, was probably just this, criticism of Isreal styled as anti semitism.

Then I started to pay closer attention to what is going on.

The focused hatred on Isreal and Jews is so disproportionate to other states you could criticise. Why?? the language used is diffrent. A diffrent standard is applied. Why?? Many people who won't speak up to criticise other states will do so loudly against Isreal. Why??

And the attacks on Jews in this country, the vile language and threats used, made me realise: anti seminitsm is on the rise again.

The fact people cannot see this desite the holocaust only happening 75 years ago is astounding.

Much more care needs to be taken to ensure this never happenes again.

Yes criticise the actions of Isreal. And I do.
But open your eyes to what is happening.

Sally Rooney is just the latest naive virue signaller to think this is the cause it's OK to join, without any reflection on why she suddenly now cares so much about this and not other things.

So many people sudeenly hate Isreal who were no where to be seen 20 years ago.
This is not an accident.

Something is happening.

You're right, something is happening. People are starting to realise that Israel isn't as friendly as we've been told and shown by the media. They kill and oppress people daily including children. It is not on. So yes something is happening.And the narrative that is constantly spun is If you dislike Israel then you must be anti semitic and have hatred towards jewish people. That is simply not true and incredibly frustrating.

Islamophobia has been on the rise for years. I've seen blatant anti muslim rhetoric (including our PM) and shit all gets done about that. But as soon as someone 'dares' to go against anything remotely related to Israel or question what they're doing to the Palestinian people we're instantly labelled anti semitic. It's just annoying

"So many people sudeenly hate Isreal who were no where to be seen 20 years ago
This is not an accident"

Well they have certainly upped their game in publicly and shamelessly killing lots of civilians so I'm not surprised people are taking more notice.

@flashbac

FFS, it's so obvious those criticising her on here haven't read her actual statement. Fake news wins the day again because people fall for bullshit everytime. She isn't boycotting the whole Hebrew language. Will you actually listen to yourselves. Idiots.

THIS!

Hahahahahaha @icedpurple

I am not suggetsing that, whihc I think is pretty obvious if you read all my posts.

it's my fast typing that's crap not my spelling, but very relevant to the thread for you to attack me on it .

OP, are you actually going to apologise for misleading people with your OP, even unintentionally?

Genuine vile anti semitism is on the rise, alongside the numbers of people who now suddenly hate Isreal.

Genuine anti semitism is more often than not from people that hate anyone that they see as different from themselves. These type of people also hate Muslims, people of colour, and to a lesser extent women too. Their motivations are a long way from those who call out the actions of the Israeli state.

Hate speech against all minority groups is on the rise. But so is political and human rights awareness. One is a terrible thing, the other is certainly not.

@MalagaNights

Hahahahahaha *@icedpurple*

I am not suggetsing that, whihc I think is pretty obvious if you read all my posts.

it's my fast typing that's crap not my spelling, but very relevant to the thread for you to attack me on it .

It's not obvious at all.

This discussion is about Sally Rooney and her decision to boycott a publisher. Since you claim that "I've been a long time supporter of the Palestinians" - something I frankly find very hard to believe - you would think you'd welcome it. Or if not, at least let us know what authors like Rooney could, in your view, do to support the cause she - and supposedly you - supports.

They've been killing civilains for 40 years.

No one cared much until now.

You can beleive that it's just a new cause, and not realted to the actual vile anti semitism being targeted at jews.

But aftre the holocaust you'd think we might be more cautios about such coincidences.

And I say this as some one who is a long time meber of the PSC, has links to Palestine and has been on many, protests, parlimentary lobbies over many years.

*They've been killing civilains for 40 years.

No one cared much until now.*

Much longer than 40 years, as you would know if you were the activist you claim to be. You'd also know that people definitely did care before now. If you've been on 'many protests', then surely you weren't protesting alone, were you?

I'm glad to hear more about the story and know the truth but it won't change my opinion of her as an author. Dire, boring books and certainly wouldn't read anything else she writes.
Don't understand the hype around her.

Hahahahahaha.
I don;t care if you beleive me.
It's true.

It is obvious if you read my posts, youre just missing the pint I'm making. Otherwise I'm not sure you'd be so upset about it?

I'm not going to give Sally Rooney advice, as I'm off to work and in a hurry.
Bye bye sorry I upset you so much

@TractorAndHeadphones

How do all of you know that she hasn’t refused any other translations? Nobody might have approached her.

It doesn't matter who approaches her, she's already said she won't have translations from any company based in Israel. That's rather different than criticising a government, but apparently some can't see why.

@keeptalkinghappytalk

She writes dull and bloodless prose which is forgivable …. But holding all her Israeli readers responsible for their government is mean and exceptional… as she has not done this for any other contentious government on this planet.

Agree. I hadn’t heard about this but I definitely won’t buy the book now. No big loss— SR’s books are easy, quick and utterly forgettable. Most people I know who like them are people who don’t read a lot of “literary fiction”. (I say that without judgment, as someone who enjoys authors like Liane Moriarty, Jodi Picoult, and similar. But I’d hardly call them “the voice of a generation” as some have about Sally Rooney.

She actually said the following:

"“The Hebrew-language translation rights to my new novel are still available, and if I can find a way to sell these rights that is compliant with the BDS movement’s institutional boycott guidelines, I will be very pleased and proud to do so”

So not a blanket statement that she "won't have translations from any company based in Israel" @MRex

@NotLettingItSlide

As long as she has also refused to have her work translated into Arabic so as to boycott the likes of the Iranian government, or Cantonese/Mandarin to boycott the CCP, or even Cyrillic/Russian or Hungarian as a stand against Putin and Orban respectively*, then her actions cannot be regarded as antisemitic. If, on the other hand, she chooses to boycott Israel and only Israel, then yes; it is antisemitism.

This is in accordance with the guidelines set by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance - the official version of antisemitism, if you will. I think we can assume that the IHRA are the best authority on what constitutes antisemitism and what does not. More so than the average Mumsnet poster browsing AIBU.

For what it's worth, I don't know enough about Ms Rooney to say either way, but I do know about the official guidelines adopted by most nations, political parties and institutions worldwide.

*These are just examples I could come up with off the top of my head. I'm certain that many people could think of better ones.

The language of Iran is Farsi (used to be called Persian) not Arabic.

As long as she has also refused to have her work translated into Arabic so as to boycott the likes of the Iranian government, or Cantonese/Mandarin to boycott the CCP, or even Cyrillic/Russian or Hungarian as a stand against Putin and Orban respectively, then her actions cannot be regarded as antisemitic. If, on the other hand, she chooses to boycott Israel and only Israel, then yes; it is antisemitism.*

BDS describe "virtually all Israeli companies... as complicit", and she further explicitly said she would not work with an Israeli company “that does not publicly distance itself from apartheid and support the UN-stipulated rights of the Palestinian people."
It's requiring a precisely worded and controversial political statement of each organisation, and if not is holding them accountable for the actions of government.
Yes, it's a blanket "no" in practice, of course it is.