An Israeli website is reporting that Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker has forbidden a new Hebrew translation of her book “The Color Purple,” stating that Israel is guilty of worse “apartheid” than the “US apartheid” in which she grew up.
According to Israeli business website Globes, Walker informed Israeli publisher Yediot Books, an affiliate of the Hebrew daily “Yediot Ahronot,” that she will not allow them to publish a new translation of her most famous book, which was first translated into Hebrew in 1984.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott on Israel published Walker’s letter of June 9, which was first reported by the “Jewish Telegraph Agency” (JTA).
Walker writes: “It isn’t possible for me to permit this at this time for the following reason: As you may know, last Fall in South Africa the Russell Tribunal on Palestine met and determined that Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories. The testimony we heard, both from Israelis and Palestinians (I was a jurist) was devastating. I grew up under American apartheid and this was far worse. Indeed, many South Africans who attended, including Desmond Tutu, felt the Israeli version of these crimes is worse even than what they suffered under the white supremacist regimes that dominated South Africa for so long.”
She adds, “It is my hope that the non-violent BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, of which I am part, will have enough of an impact on Israeli civilian society to change the situation.”
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article courtesy of BlackAmericaWeb.com
