British Novelist Supports Boycott of ’Israel’
Local Editor
British famous author Iain Banks announced he has cancer and may have just months to live.
In remarks to the British Guardian daily, he explained why, in 2010, he decided his novels would no longer be published in "Israel".
"I support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] campaign because, especially in our instantly connected world, an injustice committed against one, or against one group of people, is an injustice against all, against every one of us; a collective injury," Banks stated.
"My particular reason for participating in the cultural boycott of "Israel" is that, first of all, I can; I'm a writer, a novelist, and I produce works that are, as a rule, presented to the international market," he underlined.
"A sporting boycott of "Israel" would make relatively little difference to the self-esteem of "Israelis" in comparison to South Africa; an intellectual and cultural one might help make all the difference, especially now that the events of the Arab spring and the continuing repercussions of the attack on the Gaza-bound flotilla peace convoy have threatened both "Israel's" ability to rely on Egypt's collusion in the containment of Gaza, and Turkey's willingness to engage sympathetically with the "Israeli" regime at all," Banks reiterated.
Moreover, the novelist stressed his boycott of "Israeli" products and prohibited selling his novel rights to "Israeli" publishers: "Since the 2010 attack on the Turkish-led convoy to Gaza in international waters, I've instructed my agent not to sell the rights to my novels to "Israeli" publishers. I don't buy "Israeli"-sourced products or food, and my partner and I try to support Palestinian-sourced products wherever possible."
"The problem is that constructive engagement and reasoned argument demonstrably have not worked, and the relatively crude weapon of boycott is pretty much all that's left."
"I'll always feel uncomfortable taking part in any action that - even if only thanks to the efforts of the "Israeli" propaganda machine - may be claimed by some to target Jewish, despite the fact that "Israel" and the Jewish people are not synonymous."
"For the "Israeli" entity and the collective of often unlikely bedfellows who support it to pursue and support the inhumane treatment of the Palestinian people - forced so brutally off their land in 1948 and still under attack today - to be so blind to the idea that injustice is injustice, is one of the defining iniquities of our age, and powerfully implies a shamingly low upper limit on the extent of our species' moral intelligence."
"When we do this, or participate in this, or even just allow this to happen without criticism or resistance, we only help ensure further injustice, oppression, intolerance, cruelty and violence in the future," the British author clarified.
"Gentile or Jew, conservative or leftist, no matter who you are or how you see yourself, these people is our people, and collectively we have turned our backs on their suffering for far too long," Banks sympathetically stated.
Earlier on, another British novelist, William Sutcliffe, had published a fictional book, The Wall, that talks about the Apartheid Wall separating the West Bank from al-Quds.
"Everything I thought I knew about "Israel" was shattered. Seeing a military occupation up close, seeing a small number of people with guns telling a large number without guns what to do... it was so much more brutal than I thought it could be," Sutcliffe mentioned.
Source: The Guardian, Edited by moqawama.org
