Best-selling Irish author, Sally Rooney, exposes her prejudice – and gross hypocrisy by supporting boycotts against Israel.

By Rolene Marks

Normal people don’t boycott Israel. At least, any normal person who would like to see a genuine, lasting peace between Israel and her Palestinian neighbours. The latest brouhaha over what is now seen as leftie, cause-du-jour, is best-selling Irish author, Sally Rooney’s decision to “not allow her books to be published in Hebrew”. After a global outcry, Rooney has decided she will allow her books to be published in Hebrew in Israel – as long as the publisher is BDS-endorsed Israel. Who wants to tell Sally Rooney that is the shortest list? Ever!

Sally Rooney is the author of the best-selling missive, Normal People, which was adapted into a highly successful TV show of the same name and various other novels which appeal to millennials. Over the years, Rooney has made no secret of her support for the Palestinian cause. In her books, characters have attended pro-Palestinian rallies and activities.

The latest storm revolves around her refusal to publish her latest novel in Hebrew which is not only one of Israel’s national languages alongside Arabic; but is sacred to the Jewish people.

Rooney tried to rationalize her decision by accusing Israel of practicing Apartheid and trotting out justification for her decision by quoting BDS (whose stated end goal is the destruction of the State of Israel; Human Rights Watch (whose founder wrote an article for the New York Times citing his concerns that the once venerated organization has a decidedly antisemitic agenda) and Israeli NGO, B’tselem (who have been exposed as receiving funding based on as many anti-Israel stories they can drum up – true or not).

What Rooney fails to understand is that Israel is a robust democracy, where a variety of opinions and views about our ongoing conflict with the Palestinians exist. We are also a country with a healthy respect for the arts. Art is supposed to bring people together, it is supposed to inspire conversation. It is supposed to provoke. By excluding one group of people or one nationality from enjoying (or not!) her art, she could do more to bring people together rather than drive bigger chasms which is of course, what BDS and their supporters want.

They do not want conversation, discourse and cooperation – they want Israel, the national representation of the Jewish people branded a pariah and excluded and use the charge of “human rights violations” as the proverbial stick to beat the horse.

Israel is not an Apartheid state. We are not without our many problems but we are certainly not an Apartheid state. The BDS movement are well aware that the word Apartheid is provocative and emotive and that people invariably understand little about what it means. All BDS does is exploits the suffering of the true victims of Apartheid to push their own racist, exclusionary and antisemitic agenda.

What I find glaringly hypocritical is that Rooney is more than happy to be published in China, Russia, Iran and other human rights violation hotspots around the world. Could it be that it is easier to advocate boycotting the tiny, Hebrew speaking market because it won’t have that much of an impact on potential profits from sales of the books? Jews are very much the people of the book – but I guess not any of Sally Rooney’s!

We cannot pretend that this does not pose a problem. Decisions of this kind only serve to give a tailwind to those who want to propagate more anti-Israel division. This week, posters were put up on bus stops in London with the words “Normal people boycott Israel”. This was a play on Rooney’s successful novel – and endorsing her decision. London transport authorities denounced this as vandalism but the message was out there for everyone to see – without the benefit of history, context and nuance.

The conflict between Israel and her Palestinian neighbours is complex and won’t be solved through boycotts and demonization but rather through negotiation and compromise.

Several days ago, the former US Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell passed away. He had this to say about the conflict, “The quest for peace, however difficult, must not be abandoned. Israel needs to live in peace and security. The Palestinians need the same, as does the region.”

Peace, he added, “can only be attained by the parties themselves. The pursuit is not helped by international actions and resolutions singling out Israel for economic attacks, or human rights allegations while ignoring despotic nations far more deserving of condemnation. That is not justice and that is not acceptable.”

Rooney and her ilk should heed his wise words.

To borrow from the title of Rooney’s best-seller, Normal People, I would leave her with a few kernels of truth. Normal people want peace. Normal people pursue dialogue and inclusion. Normal people don’t discriminate. Normal people do not sow division and hate. Normal people look for solutions instead of propagating conflict.

This gross kind of antisemitism, practiced by people like Rooney should never be something that normal people do. I hope it is not too late.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

From a dark road in the sixties to a dark age today, British TV series “Ridley Road” illuminates

By David E. Kaplan

It was by casual chance and indifference that I tuned into a chapter of history that I knew little or nothing about. Screening down the latest new movies and series that appeared on my streamer list, I opted for a BBC drama series titled “Ridley Road”. I had no idea what it was about but it sounded mildly interesting as it was briefly described as set in London during “the swinging sixties.”  Far from it!

Sure it was London and the sixties but not about what I was expecting –  the youth-driven cultural revolution that saw London flourishing in art, music and fashion, and emblematic of fun-loving hedonism.

This was not Abbey Road but Ridley Road!  

It was a dark road covering a dark period in history and yet it was hardly ‘history’ when the underlying issues it covered are as sadly prevailing as today’s headline news.

It took me down a road untraveled and left me disturbed as we, as Jews, have been down this road before – too many times.

And one is left asking:

What has changed?

If Abbey Road was the eleventh album by the Beatles named after the location of EMI Studios in London, Ridley Road by contrast was the Jewish headquarters not of a music studio but of Group 62 formed in 1962 in response to the resurgence of fascism in Britain headed by Colin Jordan, the founder of Britain’s National Socialist Movement (NSM). The 4-part series opens not as I was half expecting of a bright London bus careering down Piccadilly  but a sunlit bedroom in a country house in Kent in 1962 where an adorable child is helping a young blonde woman make the bed. They are then joined by a dapper man with a warm friendly face. He is the husband and the father. They gather in front of the window welcoming the morning sunshine from a Kentish pastoral scene. Then the jolt –  the man, while smiling gives a Nazi salute. This man, this husband, this father – is the infamous Colin Jordan.

For those unfamiliar with this constantly sieg-heiling character, John Colin Campbell Jordan (1923 – 2009) was a leading figure in post-war neo-Nazism in Great Britain. Through his leadership of organisations such as the National Socialist Movement and the World Union of National Socialists, Jordan advocated a pan-Aryan “Universal Nazism”. Although unaffiliated with any political party, he remained an influential voice on the British far right.

In the fictionalized drama series based on true events, the headquarters at Ridley Road is run by group of Jews who are joined by a young Jewish girl from Manchester who bravely sets out to infiltrate Jordan’s neo-Nazi organization. Their most remembered confrontation – depicted in the series –  was in Trafalgar Square in 1962, when Jordan – protected by the Free Speech Act – held a raucous rally where a riot broke out between his neo-Nazi supporters and protesting anti-fascists.

Of the plot I will write no more; only of the secondary ‘plot’ , that is, the ramifications of the series reflecting the spiraling antisemitism in Britain today.

No sooner had I started watching Part III of the series, my eyes were drawn to an article in the Time of Israel headed:

“UK actor faces ‘relentless’ abuse for playing Jewish character in BBC series”

The series is Ridley Road  that debuted on October 3 on BBC and the UK actor is Eddie Marsan, mostly known for his role in the hit American series ‘Ray Donovan’. Marsan, who is not Jewish, plays the leading role of Soly Malinovsk, the leader of the anti-fascist underground movement known as the 62 Group. Twitter users were quick to attack the show of “favouring Zionists” and accusing Marsan of supporting “apartheid”.

Did these twisted twitter users even WATCH the series?

Marsan was quick to respond revealing that he has been facing “relentless” online abuse for playing a Jewish character in the four-part “Ridley Road” TV series.

“F**k me, this is relentless, all I did was play a Jew, I dread to think what would’ve happened if I was actually Jewish,” Marsan tweeted .

Should anyone be surprised at the spiraling increase of anti-Semitism in the UK when a non-Jewish actor is subjected to such vile hate. See some of the tweets Marsan shares:

• “Facts are facts Eddie, you are a crap actor and I’ll never watch shite with your Apartheid loving bake in it.”

• “Why does the BBC do so many programmes favouring the Zionists ‘return’ and so few favouring Palestinian’s Right of Return? Just asking”

The former Ray Donovan star was quick to fire back with:

 “I did a series about British Jews facing antisemitism, nothing to do with Israel or Palestine. But if you think they’re linked you probably think one justifies the other & the irony is, that’s exactly why Ridley Rd got commissioned.”

Responding to another antisemitic comment, Marsan proudly explained that he was grateful “to do ‘Ridley Road’ because it gave me the opportunity to confront people like you constructively and creatively. You can scream & shout all you want & throw around false accusations about, but it just reconfirms your prejudice.”

Outspoken against antisemitism on social media in the past, Marsan grappled with an explanation:

“Antisemitism gives the myth that it’s punching up to some mythical all-powerful Jewish elite… so quite often, young people are taken in by antisemitic tropes on social media. They don’t see it as racism, they see it as anti-capitalist, and they feel more inclined to support it.”

In truth, Jews have been victimized for being communist as much as being capitalist suggesting the nature of the prejudice  is never over belief but blood.

The Jews are despised not for what courses through their brains but through their veins.

British Jewish actress, Tracy-Ann Oberman, who costars in the series as Marsan’s wife and co-activist in the 62 Group, is intimately connected with the history. Her grandparents were members of the intelligence-gathering and anti-fascist underground movement 62 Group, which tried to stop the rise of the far-right. Oberman has been a staunch advocate for the fight against antisemitism since she left the British Labour Party in April 2017, after it refused to revoke the membership of former London mayor, Ken Livingstone, who was accused of antisemitism.

Appearing as a guest on the British talk show “Lorraine”, Oberman revealed that she was  being targeted by antisemitic trolls on social media, who have been abusing her online for years.

“It comes from the left and the right, and if you see an injustice, I’ve always felt I needed to stand up and talk about it.”

Despite the treatment Oberman has been experiencing – described as “frankly vile” by talk show host Lorraine Kelley – Oberman is adamant that she will continue to speak against antisemitism despite online bullying.

The British writer, activist and Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, Karen Emma Pollock CBE, called the abuse that Marsan is facing:

 “shocking, disgusting, [and] exhausting all at once.”

While appreciative of the support following the verbal abuse targeting the intrepid actor, Marsan wrote:

 “Thanks for all the kind responses about this but honestly, I’ve been in this game for 30 years & I think I’m the dog’s bollocks, I’m fine. But the point is, what if I wasn’t. What if I were a young kid just starting out & I had to deal with this level of abuse. It’s unacceptable.”

None of this should be surprising!

Also hardly ‘surprising’, last Thursday, London’s Metropolitan Police arrested a 28-year-old man suspected of carrying out five “unprovoked assaults on Jewish people” over the past month in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Stamford Hill. Police had been searching for the suspect since he had been filmed two weeks earlier assaulting a Jewish man and a child on the street in separate incidents on the same day.

Londoners today hardly need reminding of the situation. Who can forget the video – televised globally on TV news networks earlier this year – showing cars with Palestinian flags driving through Jewish populated areas of the British capital honking their horns and screaming:

“F*** their mothers, rape their daughters”

If this is the ‘road’  the UK is set on going down, then Ridley Road is a ‘much watch’ as warning sign how societies can so easily “go down the wrong road”. Whatever the stresses and strains on a society, it seems Jews  are perennially caught in the middle and are blamed and ostracized.

One must bear in mind that this fanatical leader of the National Socialist Movement, Colin Jordan, was not “some crazy” aberration – he went to Cambridge and was a teacher in a school – a classic example as how the ordinary  transforms into the evil extraordinary.

Whether the threats to deal with Jews are heard as manic murderous screams from moving cars or are delivered in more refined parlance from those attired in suits and fine skirts, the instructive narrative of Ridley Road  is no less about the past as it is about the future.

Ask actors like Eddie Masan and Tracy-Ann Oberman!

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

The unspoken morality complex

Written by Lay of the Land UK correspondent

Ireland’s antisemitism is growing in public notoriety, from the attempted passage of a BDS law to author Sally Rooney boycotting the Hebrew language. Ireland has always been extremely divided towards Jews, with two thoughts, two minds and two hearts; but one grows stronger.

Modern Irish antisemitism began with The Limerick Pogrom, also known as The Limerick Boycott (1904-1906), when the local Jewish community was subjected to local boycotts and violent attacks, forcing local Jews to flee Limerick. The Limerick Pogrom would prove pivotal as Jews were denounced as a ‘disgrace’ to Ireland’s identity and morality as sermonised by local leader and pogrom leader Father John Creagh. A spreader of antisemitic conspiracy theories, including that of ritual murder, he said that the Jews had come to Limerick:

 “to fasten themselves on us like leeches and to draw our blood“.

The belief that Jewish people and culture remain a stain on Irish identity and morality, remain pervasive with modern Irish antisemites. Pro-Nazi elements, within Irish society rose to prominence, with Oliver J Flanagan in his maiden speech on becoming a member of the Dáil (Irish Parliament) in 1943 stating:

“rout the Jews out of this country… where the bees are there is honey, and where the Jews are there is money.”

Flanagan, would go on to become a government Minster for Agriculture in 1954, and rose to Minster of Defence in 1976. Antisemitism, would continue to build within Ireland as the legacy of Irish indifference to the suffering of Jews even grew following WWII and the horrors of the Holocaust.

Those in Ireland who had wished to resist the Nazis would quietly without any fanfare travel abroad to enlist such as Marie Elmes, an Irish aid worker who saved the lives of at least 200 Jewish children during the Holocaust, by hiding them in the boot of her car. At great risk to herself  and even imprisoned by the Gestapo for six moth on suspicion of aiding Jews, in 2015, she became the first and only Irish person honoured as Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel.

For the over 5000 Irish Soldiers serving the Irish Military Forces during WWII, their circumstances were such that they enlisted in secret and on returning home were treated as outcasts – formally stripped of their previous ranks and medals.

Irish antisemitism would rapidly worsen, turning from largely extreme ‘cold indifference’ with bouts of violence to open antisemitic hostility in the form of Israelophobia. As Ireland during the 1950s and 1960s became consumed by the ethnic conflict in Northern Ireland, southern or the Republic of Ireland looked for allies, finding it with antisemitic regimes.

It should therefore come as little surprise that the Iranian regime  – that supports the destruction of Israel and sponsors terror groups that calls for the destruction of Jews – also proved to be a strong supporter and close ally to Ireland.

Irish antisemitism increased throughout the decades, culminating in other formative moments in the 2000s, with the disseminating of antisemitic literature and the support of the rising BDS movement. In 2006, a local scandal erupted within Ireland of the selling of the notorious antisemitic libel of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Tesco supermarkets, which were only removed after the denouncement by local Muslim Clerics and Imams. This began an intense discussion on Israel coupled with finding traction with the antisemitic philosophy of the BDS movement.

Founded in 2005, the BDS movement calling for the boycott and destruction of Israel as outlined by its cofounder Omar Barghouti – “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sell-out Palestinian, would ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine” -gained rapid popularity throughout Ireland in the late 2000s and early 2010s, spreading rapidly throughout Irish academia, the political establishment, and civil society. Ireland in direct contravention of its EU Membership, continues to try and pass a law called “The Occupied Territories Bill” to ban products; made in Jewish areas in the contested areas of East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria / West Bank. The Law is being championed by nationalistic religious and ethnic elements alike.

Irish author Sally Rooney, boycotts the Hebrew language by refusing to have her book published in Hebrew, citing the need to support BDS:

 “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”.

Rooney’s actions are a recurring antisemitic legacy within Ireland.

The unspoken Irish morality complex of boycotting Jews  – from the early twentieth century of its own citizens to the present of  proposing to boycott Jews today in Israel  – will continue to pervade Irish society until it is fully challenged.

Ireland today is repeating its age-old habit of boycotting Jews to self-promote its sense of misguided morality where Jews are seen as immoral.  They fail to acknowledge their own immorality.

A long time coming, Ireland needs to finally address its years of antisemitism and  repair its relations with its small and beleaguered Irish-Jewish community.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).