[Peace-discuss] Letter from Alice Walker to Publishers at Yediot Books Withholding Permission to Publish "The Color Purple" in Hebrew until Israel changes its policies toward Palestinians

[Jenifer Cartwright]

A perfect example of non-violent resistance. and perfect timing, too -- my book club just read and discussed CROSSING MANDELBAUM GATE: Arabs and Israelis from 1956-1978 (Kai Bird), and I know our members will be thrilled w/ Alice Walker's position, and for her unequivocal explanation as well -- powerful!. Thanks for sending it. 

--- On Mon, 6/18/12, Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org> wrote:

From: Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Letter from Alice Walker to Publishers at Yediot Books Withholding Permission to Publish "The Color Purple" in Hebrew until Israel changes its policies toward Palestinians
To: "Peace-discuss List" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Date: Monday, June 18, 2012, 11:23 PM


http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1917

>From the website of the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

Alice Walker | PACBI | 9 June 2012


Letter from Alice Walker to Publishers at Yediot Books
This letter is published with author's permission. 



June 9, 2012

Dear Publishers at Yediot Books,


Thank you so much for wishing to publish my novel THE COLOR PURPLE.  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.


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.


In that regard, I offer an earlier example of THE COLOR PURPLE’s 
engagement in the world-wide effort to rid humanity of its 
self-destructive habit of dehumanizing whole populations.  When the film
 of The Color Purple was finished, and all of us who made it decided we 
loved it, Steven Spielberg, the director, was faced with the decision of
 whether it should be permitted to travel to and be offered to the South
 African public.  I lobbied against this idea because, as with Israel 
today, there was a civil society movement of BDS aimed at changing South
 Africa’s apartheid policies and, in fact, transforming the government.


It was not a particularly difficult position to hold on my part:  I 
believe deeply in non-violent methods of social change though they 
sometimes seem to take forever, but I did regret not being able to share
 our movie, immediately, with (for instance) Winnie and Nelson Mandela 
and their children, and also with the widow and children of the brutally
 murdered, while in police custody, Steven Biko, the visionary 
journalist and defender of African integrity and freedom.


We decided to wait.  How happy we all were when the apartheid regime was
 dismantled and Nelson Mandela became the first president of color of 
South Africa.  


Only then did we send our beautiful movie!  And to this day, when I am 
in South Africa, I can hold my head high and nothing obstructs the love 
that flows between me and the people of that country.


Which is to say, I would so like knowing my books are read by the people
 of your country, especially by the young, and by  the brave Israeli 
activists (Jewish and Palestinian) for justice and peace I have had the 
joy of working beside.  I am hopeful that one day, maybe soon, this may 
happen.  But now is not the time.


We must continue to work on the issue, and to wait.


In faith that a just future can be fashioned from small acts,

Alice Walker

 Posted on 17-06-2012

-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org

naiman at justforeignpolicy.org

 


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