How JK Rowling used Dumbledore’s example to explain her stance on Israel’s boycott

JK Rowling has used social media to prove yet again that the she is not someone to cross, as she shut down detractors who were using the Harry Potter references to slam her decision, by citing Dumbledore.

After hundreds of British academics said that they would boycott contact with Israeli universities over the state’s “intolerable human rights violations” towards Palestinians, Rowling and double Booker Prize-winning novelist Hilary Mantel, said cultural boycotts that singled out Israel were “divisive and discriminatory, and will not further peace”.

Rowling took to TwitLonger to elaborate her point against the cultural boycott after people criticised her stance with Potter references, comparing Israelis to the villain Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Some even went on to say that ‘Harry would be disappointed by her stance.’ She countered that with a post titled ‘ Why Dumbledore went to the hilltop ’. And she used the reference perfectly to make her point.

She cited how the wizard approached Severus Snape, who was a Death Eater in command of Lord Voldemort at the time, in an attempt to turn him into a spy. This was a crucial move in the book, as it were Snape’s actions that lead to the ultimate downfall of the Dark Lord. The scene was glimpsed through flashbacks by Harry, Ron and Hermione.

“Dumbledore is an academic and he believes that certain channels of communication should always remain open. It was true in the Potter books and it is true in life that talking will not change wilfully closed minds. However, the course of my fictional war was forever changed when Snape chose to abandon the course on which he was set, and Dumbledore helped him do it. Theirs was a partnership without which Harry’s willingness to fight would have been pointless,” Rowling wrote as a parallel to the Israel conflict.

She references several organisations from across Israel and Palestine which attempt to bridge the gap and said that therefore the channels of communication should be open.

She ended with_, “I_ genuinely don’t take it in ill part when you send me counterarguments framed in terms of the Potter books. All books dealing with morality can be picked apart for those lines and themes that best suit the arguer’s perspective,” Rowling writes. “I can only say that a full discussion of morality within the series is impossible without examining Dumbledore’s actions, because he is the moral heart of the books. He did not consider all weapons equal and he was prepared, always, to go to the hilltop_._" .

Read the full post here

Why Dumbledore went to the hilltop

Read: https://t.co/tXj41Yj58S

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 27, 2015