Alice Malsenior Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an African American author, poet, activist and author of the novel “The Color Purple” (1982) for which she won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Walker ).
Alice Walker to Apartheid Israel publisher Yediot Books refusing permission for them to publish the Hebrew translation of her novel “The Color Purple” (2012): “ “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.” [1].
[1]. Alice Walker, “Letter from Alice Walker to publishers at Yediot Books”, Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, 9 June 2012: http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1917 .
Alice Walker (Pulitzer Prize winner , African American novelist, short story writer, poet, activist and author of the novel “The Color Purple” for which she won the National Book Award for hardcover fiction, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) on supporting BDS (2007): “ What would [the Civil Rights bus boycott] look like, be like, today, in this situation between Palestine and Israel? … It would look like the granddaughter of Rosa Parks, the grandson of Martin Luther King…. It would be to support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel to End the Occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and by this effort begin to soothe the pain and attend the sorrows of a people wrongly treated for generations. This action would also remind Israel that we have seen it lose its way and have called to it, often with love, and we have not been heard. In fact, we have reached out to it only to encounter slander, insult and, too frequently, bodily harm. Disengage, avoid, and withhold support from whatever abuses, degrades and humiliates humanity” (David Palumbo-Liu, “Backing BDS: another Pulitzer winner comes out for Palestinian rights”, Salon, 22 June 2016: https://www.salon.com/2016/06/22/backing_bds_another_pulitzer_winner_comes_out_for_palestinian_rights/ ).