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Sally Rooney's Anti-Israel Stance Flows from a Long Irish Tradition
(The Sunday Times-UK) Madeleine Spence - In May, Palestinian authorities raised a flag outside Ramallah's city hall to celebrate one of its longest-standing allies: the Republic of Ireland. People shouldn't have been surprised when novelist Sally Rooney announced that she would not allow an Israeli publisher to translate her latest novel into Hebrew because of her support for a boycott of Israeli companies. For decades, Ireland has been an ally of the Palestinians. The IRA felt a kindred spirit in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), whom they saw as fellow freedom-fighters. Today, huge murals in Derry, Northern Ireland, use the backdrop of a Palestinian flag. In the first half of the 20th century it was the Zionist cause that tugged at the sympathies of the Irish; here was a group who had also known great suffering and the pain of colonial oppression. But after the creation of Israel in 1948, support shifted to the Palestinians. The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign boasts 15 branches.