Normal People ‘Boycott Israel’ posters are ‘vandalism’

TfL has said it will remove any ‘boycott Israel’ posters found on its network immediately after reports of pro-BDS posters found at bus stops.

The reported images mocked-up Sally Rooney’s best-selling novel ‘Normal People’ to read: “Normal People Boycott Israel,” with one appearing to be at a bus stop in Vauxhall.

Originally, the advertising agency, JCDeacaux, responsible for the billboard at the bus stop, suggested on Twitter in a now-deleted post that the posters could be photoshopped.

However, in its latest statements, the agency said workers had checked a site where the posters were reported and the frame was empty.

A TfL spokesperson said they had ordered any instances of boycott Israel posters found at bus stops to be taken down “immediately.”

“These adverts are not authorised by TfL or our advertising partner JCDecaux,” said the spokesperson.

• READ MORE: Voice of the Jewish News: Sally Rooney should just mime her next novel  

“It is fly posting and therefore an act of vandalism which we take extremely seriously. We have instructed our contractors to remove any of these posters found on our network immediately.”

Best-selling author Sally Rooney last week refused to allow her new novel to be translated into Hebrew by an Israeli company.

The Irish author confirmed she had declined an offer from Israeli publishing company Modan to translate her latest book Beautiful World, Where Are You into Hebrew – labelling Israel an apartheid state based on a “system of racial domination.”

Israel’s Diaspora Minister Nachman Shai was among those condemning Rooney’s actions saying: “The cultural boycott of Israel, antisemitism in a new guise, is a certificate of poor conduct for her and others who behave like her.”