A Letter I Had To Write
As an author, I'm always thrilled to receive an offer to translate one of my books, especially The Fifth Sacred Thing. But this is one I had to turn down, and here's the letter I wrote explaining why:
Dear Publisher,
While I am gratified to receive your offer of a Hebrew translation of my novel, The Fifth Sacred Thing, I cannot support its publication in Israel at this time. Let me explain why.
I have for many years been a supporter of nonviolent resistance against the Occupation of Palestine. One of the most potent nonviolent strategies is the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions, and that includes a cultural boycott of institutions that support and/or normalize the occupation, either actively or passively, by silence.
This is not an easy position for me to take, as it has long been a dream of mine to have my works translated into Hebrew and published in Israel. Although I am most known as a voice for feminist spirituality and the rebirth of the ancient Goddess religions of Europe and the Middle East, I am Jewish by birth, culture, upbringing and identity. Growing up in post-war America, I was taught to love and revere Israel as the great miracle that came out of the pain and horror of the Holocaust. I saved my pennies as a child in Sunday School to plant trees in Israel, and spent a summer on a Hebrew High School trip to Israel when I was fifteen, staying in a youth village, and touring all the historic sites that were accessible in 1966.
As I grew up, and became involved in many movements for peace and justice, I avoided the issue of Palestine, as many Jewish progressives do. The issue is just too painful. To confront the injustice that the State of Israel has inflicted on Palestinians is to explode that comforting narrative that says, “We were oppressed, we were driven out of our own land, we were kicked around for 2000 years and nearly exterminated by the Nazis, but now we have our own land back again, and by God, no one can ever do that to us again!”
That’s a powerful and righteous story—but it falls apart once we allow the Palestinians into it. I know personally how excruciatingly painful it is to admit, “We were driven out of our own land and oppressed for 2000 years, and now, in order to take it back, we have inflicted oppression and suffering on another people.” We cannot rest smug and pure in our righteous triumph over victimhood—we must acknowledge that we, like every group of human beings, are capable of victimizing others.
Poked and prodded by other activists, many of them also Jewish, I did undergo that process. Between 2002 and 2005, I volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement, a group founded jointly by Palestinians, Israelis and American Jews to support Palestinian nonviolent resistance against the occupation. I went to the refugee camps, sat with families in the West Bank when soldiers invaded their homes, helped support nonviolent campaigns and helped comfort the team that was with Rachel Corrie, a young American volunteer when she was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer, and then the team that was with British photographer Tom Hurndall when he was shot by an Israeli sniper. I’ve huddled with Gazan children as they attempted to do their homework while tanks fired rounds at their houses, and watched them play among the rubble and the shell holes in the dusty streets. For many years, I was not allowed to return by the Israeli authorities, but when I was finally able to come back and teach a permaculture course in the West Bank, I had students who had seen their homes bulldozed as children, their fathers and brothers and cousins jailed or shot.
The attacks by Hamas last October were horrific and indefensible. I condemn them. Yet I am not surprised that some of those traumatized children I knew twenty years ago might grow up filled with rage and a thirst for retribution. The massive collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza by the Israeli military is also horrific and indefensible, and will not further security for Israel or peace, but instead breed hatred and revenge.
I have many close friends in Israel, and I know that there are strong movements in Israeli society for freedom, justice, and environmental balance. I am sure that your company is part of those movements, and would be a good home for my novel. But too often, I’ve seen those very movements avoid the issue of the Occupation, as I have seen progressive and New Age Jewish groups here in the U.S. do the same. I have several times been asked to speak at a synagogue or help lead a service, but then told not to speak about Palestine, for fear of rupturing the sense of community. I understand how divisive the issue could be, yet I always decline those invitations. We MUST speak about the issue. We must confront the pain, the horrible guilt of our complicity in awful acts, or we will continue the vicious cycle of the abused becoming abusers in turn.
I know there are many controversies around the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions, and might take issue with some of their phrasing or stands. Perhaps this isn’t the best or most effective stand to take. I could certainly talk myself into the position that publishing The Fifth Sacred Thing in Israel would, overall, be an action that might further peace, speaking as it does about the power of nonviolence. But supporting the cultural boycott is a stand I can take, a small thing that I can do. Right now, with millions of Gazans displaced, with tens of thousands killed, a third of them children, with the entire population on the verge of starvation—and with the hostages still suffering in a captivity that all of this carnage cannot end—I want to do anything I can to oppose the normalization of this pain, and to poke and prod others to do so as well.
And so I would ask—has your organization taken an explicit, public stand against the occupation and in support of the human rights of Palestinians? Is there such a statement on your website or public face? (I searched for your website but couldn’t find it). Would you support a ceasefire in Gaza and the right of self-determination for the Palestinian people? If so, I’d be proud and happy to have you publish The Fifth Sacred Thing. Failing that—and I do understand the fallout that might bring to you—then, sadly, I must say that this is not the time.
Thanks again for your offer,
Starhawk
Cultural boycott guidelines can be found here: https://bdsmovement.net/cultural-boycott