Sally Rooney on a new Hebrew translation of Intermezzo: The Israeli culture sector is complicit in apartheid'

Intermezzo, a novel by Irish writer Sally Rooney, is scheduled for Hebrew publication this month by Israeli publisher November Books, in collaboration with +972 Magazine and Local Call. The announcement follows more than four years after Rooney declined a translation offer from a different Israeli publisher for an earlier book, citing the global boycott movement against Israel. Rooney later agreed to work with November Books, which has been deemed compliant with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The exchange with Irish Palestinian activist Samir Eskanda, conducted by email and edited for clarity, covers Rooney’s reasons for engaging with the boycott, the movement’s aims and targets, and the role of artists in pursuing radical change. The Palestinian call for cultural boycotts began in 2004 and is guided by PACBI, which targets institutional complicity rather than individual identity.

"Intermezzo, the most recent book by Irish novelist Sally Rooney, will be published in Hebrew this month by the Israeli publisher November Books, in collaboration with +972 Magazine and Local Call. The announcement comes more than four years after Rooney, citing the global boycott movement against Israel, turned down a translation offer by a different Israeli publisher for an earlier book."

"Below, Rooney talks to Irish Palestinian activist Samir Eskanda about her decision to work with November Books, which has been deemed to be in compliance with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. They discuss what first brought her to the boycott, the movement's aims and targets and the role of the artist in bringing about radical change. The discussion, which took place over email, has been condensed and edited for clarity."

"Palestinians have called since 2004 for the boycott of complicit Israeli cultural institutions. Since then, many thousands of artists, writers, cultural workers and arts institutions have publicly endorsed this call. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) leads and guides this work. It's a founding member of the nonviolent BDS movement, which launched in 2005 and is led by the broadest Palestinian civil society coalition."

"The boycott targets institutions rather than individuals, and complicity, not identity. Israeli cultural organisations, companies and institutions are overwhelmingly complicit in whitewashing and justifying Israel's ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, its wider regional wars of aggression and expansionism, and its decades-old regime of military occupation and settler-colonial apartheid, which must be isolated and entirely dismantled."

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