The author of Harry Potter and Mahmoud Darwish

In Britain, where once upon a time the country’s foreign minister Arthur James Balfour on behalf of his government promised the Jewish people to establish a state for them in Palestine, we also find one of the largest movements for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), which includes the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Netanyahu’s government continues to dominate in both the East and the West, but it still has no way of solving the problem of the academic boycott against Israel. The boycott of a regime as opposed to a government, as was the case in South Africa, can only be the result of one thing: military occupation.

Israel and some of its British allies have tried to contain the BDS movement, which directly impacts Israel at least. They have yet to succeed; except for the fact that merely a few days ago nearly 150 British writers signed a letter published in the Guardian that stated their stance against the academic boycott of Israel. This counter-movement against the BDS campaign gained even more prominence when it was discovered that J.K Rowling’s name, the author of the famous Harry Potter series, was among the signatories on the list. There were many other important names such as Hilary Mantel who won the British Man Booker prize for her novels. In contrast, a few months ago, nearly 700 British intellectuals and artists signed a letter saying that they would halt all cultural and artistic interactions with Israel due to its mistreatment, humiliation and subjugation of the Palestinian people. This list was the biggest weapon in the educational and cultural war against the Israeli regime. It should be enough for the Arabs to know that British high school and university students are taught about the ins and outs of the power dynamic between the Palestinians, how to deal with Israel and the full breadth of this campaign.

#BDS

There are many forces at work when it comes to the cultural and academic boycott of Israel and it would not be far-fetched to assume that many Arabs hardly know anything about this issue or perhaps even the fact that such a boycott exists. However, the presence of J.K Rowling’s name on the list, as one of the richest and bestselling author in the world, did not create the sense of urgency that it should have in the media and on the global stage, which is strange considering she gained prominence after having started her literary career in a coffee shop in Scotland as a struggling single mother on government benefits. Since then, anything related to J.K Rowling’s name usually makes headlines in the media.

No writer in history, past or present, has been lucky enough to have had the same amount of financial success as J.K. Rowling, even though she arguably bears less talent (but no less of a creative imagination) than another famous British writer JRR Tolkien, the author of the epic fantasy trilogy The Lord of The Rings. Movie-goers and their families all know of the two fantasy writers turned public icons Tolkien and Rowling, and many of them have a tendency to favour Tolkien, the pioneer behind this genre.

J.K. Rowling did not place her name on the list of 150 artists against the cultural boycott of Israel without sincerely thinking about the matter. She must also have known that this move would place her in a position that many others would not be too keen on given the message of severe criticism that many British artists have directed towards Israel. J.K Rowling responded to many of her audience members who were disturbed by her decision to sign this letter by saying that the Palestinian people are subjected to injustice and brutality and that she would like to see the Israeli government bear responsibility for their actions. Not only that, Rowling went on to expose another dimension that her audience was perhaps unaware of and that is perhaps the most important aspect of this whole scenario – perhaps more important than her decision to sign the letter in the first place.

Read: Mahmoud Darwish (13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008)

Who would have thought that the first lady of fantasy fiction is a devout reader of Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry? Many would respond by asking what does that mean? What could Rowling add to Mahmoud Darwish’s global poetry verses? The person who asks such a question is oblivious to the impact that celebrities have on global opinion. J.K. Rowling did not place her name on the list of 150 anti-boycott artists to continue on the path of increasing money and fame. More importantly, she put Mahmoud Darwish himself in the middle of this conversation about the issue of the boycott. Darwish himself is there to witness the debate. Rowling said that Mahmoud Darwish is among the many who inspired her to take a stance against Israeli aggression but she argued that she believes that holding Israel accountable for its actions is one thing and the academic and cultural boycott is another. She knows that she will not help in creating the atmosphere that is necessary for seeing Netanyahu’s ouster but she knows that the cultural boycott could harm individuals who did not vote for him, and this is the point with which she does not agree.

Translated from Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, 2 November, 2015.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.