STAND UP AGAINST THE BIRTHRIGHT YA BOOK COMING OUT NEXT YEAR
ok, so let’s start from the beginning.
In March this year, author Haley Neil announced her debut, “ONCE MORE WITH CHUTZPAH”, a YA novel about an American teen who goes on a birthright trip to Israel and dicovers her sexuality.
This concept is a slap to the face of Palestinians.
Birthright trips are propaganda trips funded by the Israeli government, allowing Jewish young adults from around the world to visit it. THESE TRIPS ARE ZIONIST PROPAGANDA MACHINES. They are insidiously cruel, because they imply any Jewish teen from around the world has a “””right””” to visit historic Palestine, while the millions upon millions of Palestinians who trace their entire family history to that land, and who STILL hold on to the keys of the homes they were forced to flee in 1948 with equal parts hope and desperation, are systematically denied the right to ever set foot in their homeland ever again.
As you can see, having birthright trips be the backdrop of some teen’s “self-discovery” journey is appalling. HOWEVER, HALEY NEIL CHOSE TO SOMEHOW MAKE IT EVEN WORSE. The practice of using LGBT rights as propaganda to hide Israel’s ethnic cleansing and extreme oppression of Palestinians is known as Pinkwashing, and it’s a propaganda tactic that’s been used for a long time by Zionists. Not only is it pure evil to use apparent progressive values to eclipse ethnic cleansing and apartheid, BUT ISRAELI FORCES RUOTINELY BLACKMAIL GAY PALESTINIANS INTO BEING INFORMERS. THEY COULD NOT CARE LESS ABOUT LGBT RIGHTS, OR ABOUT ANY OF THE BASIC RIGHTS OF PALESTINIANS.
Palestinian activist Emily Khalifeh tried to vey politely reach out to the author, agent, and editor of the book, and THEY ALL IGNORED HER. THESE PEOPLE WHO PRETENDED TO CARE ABOUT POC IN PUBLISHING A FEW WEEKS AGO IMMEDIATELY IGNORED A WOC EXPRESSING CONCERN OVER THEIR DISGUSTING BOOK. Only after her tweets telling what happened gained traction did they deign to give statements on the issue.
This is Haley Neil’s lukewarm, bullshit statement. If you’re not familiar with Zionist talking points, this might seem like an alright response to you, but the absolute uselessness of it can be summarised by noticing how she discussed her “complex feelings” about attending Jerusalem Pride because of the LGBTphobia present in Israel, WHILE NOT EVEN THINKING THAT PALESTINIAN PEOPLE LIKE MYSELF ARENT EVEN ALLOWED INTO JERUSALEM. She didn’t think to employ Palestinian sensitivity readers until AFTER the controversy. She fully intends to publish this Zionist, pinkwashing propaganda with only some “revisions” to appease the more liberal critics.
THIS WHOLE BOOK IS A MESS AND AN INSULT TO PALESTINIANS SUFFERING FROM HORRIFYING OPPRESSION BY THE HANDS OF ISRAEL. IT HAS TO BE STOPPED FROM BEING PUBLISHED.
Since these people have shown they only care about making money and maintaining their reputation, the only way to REALLY make them listen is to hit them where it hurts.
IF YOU CARE ABOUT COMBATING ZIONIST PROPAGANDA AT ALL, PLEASE GO TO THE BOOK’S GOODREADS PAGE, GIVE A ONE STAR RATING, AND WRITE A SMALL REVIEW EXPLAINING WHY. Making a Goodreads account if you don’t have one only takes 5 minutes, and is very easy!!!! It’s also a pretty important site for the publishing industry, especially for debut books like this one!!!!
ALSO, PLEASE TWEET THE PUBLISHER, @bloomsburykids, DEMANDING THEY PULL THE BOOK, AND EMAIL THEM AT contact@bloomsbury.com IF YOU CAN.
Publishing is a money hungry industry that DOESNT CARE about POC, but if they see this kind of debut book is getting this much backlash, then they will think twice about publishing it. HELP PALESTINIANS OUT
[Transcript of Haley Neil’s Statement:
I want to start off by apologizing for not responding sooner, both to the submissions through my author website and the current online discussion. As a debut author, this is my first time navigating responses to my work in the public sphere. It is deeply important to me to address this real, complex issue that deserves thoughtful attention.
My heart is with Palestine right now. I want to be very clear: My book in no way glorifies Israel or Birthright. It is an exploration of Jewish identity and culture, drawn from my own experience as an American Jew with Israeli family, some of whom I met in person for the first time on Birthright.
While on Birthright, I had the unique experience of attending Jerusalem Pride. This is not typically part of the trip; our tour leader had to fight for permission for us to go. Those of us who chose to attend went with the knowledge that the previous year an Orthodox Jewish man stabbed and killed a teenage marcher. This was my first Pride. As someone who was grappling with my place on the asexual spectrum, it was a profoundly meaningful experience. But Israel is still a place that does not allow same sex marriage. We were only allowed to attend the march because our tour leader worked with lgbtqia+ youth who had been kicked out of their homes. This is just one example of the complex experiences I had in Israel that is reflected in my story.
I want to clarify that my debut has always been a YA Contemporary, not a rom-com. The manuscript is in its first round of developmental edits; as of the time I am writing this, there is not even an official synopsis.
While drafting this story, I interviewed other people who have been on Birthright and had Jewish, non-Jewish, and queer readers. I intend to seek out additional perspectives, specifically Palestinian view points. As I move forward with revisions, I will continue to be mindful of these necessary and nuanced conversations.
/END TRANSCRIPT]
Remember this book? Remember how awful the author’s response to Palestinian criticsm was? Well the cover was just revealed.
[Image description:
Illustrated cover of “Once More with Chutzpah”, showing a smiling teen girl with a Star of David necklace. She is standing in front of a Palestinian port city, probably Jaffa.
End image description]
Below is also a transcript of Haley Neil’s blog post in which she announces this cover.
“I began writing Once More with Chutzpah shortly after my first trip to Israel. I will forever be grateful that I had the chance to meet family members, attend Jerusalem Pride, visit the gender-neutral section of the Western Wall, and see my safta’s homeland. There were many details from my own trip that I echoed in this book and others I wasn’t able to fit into Tally’s story. There was a truly amazing food tour through Tel Aviv that words couldn’t do justice. I remember sitting in an academic lecture on the Middle Eastern Conflict run by a professor and stopping outside a checkpoint. I got the chance to meet my safta’s cousins, who she grew up with like siblings, for the first time. These moments were immensely meaningful to me as someone with Israeli family facing the deeply complicated history of the country and the even more complex present.This book is a work of fiction. There are liberties I took, from the specifics of the high school exchange program the characters are on to moving Jerusalem Pride to January (which was in August when I went).On the whole, my experience with my own trip, and the time I’ve had to reflect upon it since, both on my own and in conversation with others, was extremely educational and meaningful. That said, this is, ultimately, one story. There is so much nuanced history around the Israeli land. This book reflects only a fraction of the whole. The complete story of the Middle East includes many other voices, including those of young people who live in Palestine or are of Palestinian descent.I also hope to read more stories from across the diaspora about Jewish identity and anxiety and asexuality. I feel so unbelievably lucky to have made this contribution. I can't wait to share it with you.”
I mean... where do I even start with this? She’s grateful that she got to attend Jerusalem Pride? That’s nice Haley, my family and I aren’t even allowed in Jerusalem. She’s happy she got to see her grandmother’s homeland? Interesting way of decribing a settler’s relationship to the land they’ve settled on. I’m sure millions of Palestinian refugees would also love to visit their homeland. Wonder what’s stopping them.
She tries to evade accountability for glossing over Israel’s nature as a violent settler-colony by talking about its “deeply complicated history”, and “even more complex present”. According to her, her book is only a fraction of the story surrounding “Israeli land”. I don’t need to tell you that this land is actually brutalised Palestinian land.
I don’t know. When I wrote the first post I was brimming with anger, but now I’m just tired. It’s actually deeply upsetting to see the ethnic cleansing of my people glossed over and over and over again so Zionists can feel good about themselves. All I’m thinking of right now is that I wish I could just stroll into Jersusalem the way Haley Neil and her characters, who are American Jewish people, can.
The links in the original post are all still working, if anyone reading this wants to make their opinions known as Goodreads reviews or to tweet at the publisher and author. After all, we know the publishing industry doesn’t care about Palestinians, but it sure as hell cares about its pockets
