Seventy prominent writers, poets and playwrights signed a letter in support of Sally Rooney’s decision to reject a contractual offer with an Israeli publishing house, describing it as “an exemplary response to the growing injustices inflicted on Palestinians.” The agreement concerned the translation of his latest novel into modern Hebrew Beautiful World, Where Are You.
Signatories include Irish authors Niamh Campbell, Kevin Barry, Ronan Bennett, Keith Ridgway, Seán Hewitt, Rita Ann Higgins, Emer Martin and William Wall; Rachel Kushner, Eileen Myles and Eliot Weinburger from the United States; Monica Ali, Caryl Churchill, China Miéville and Kamila Shamsie from the UK.
The letter speaks of a “clear moral obligation” to which writers feel compelled to respond, in solidarity not only with Rooney and his “refusal to publish a book with an important Israeli publisher who also publishes the books of the Minister of Defense of the country “, but also and above all with” Palestinian artists who have asked their colleagues around the world to stop complicity in the face of human rights violations perpetrated by Israel “.
This, the signatories write, is the context within which Sally Rooney made her decision. A decision in which “she is not alone”. In fact, the letter mentions another letter, the one written in May and signed by 1600 artists from all over the world to condemn the crimes of Israel.
The full version was published on the Irish Times website.