Novelist Sally Rooney says she will support Palestine Action despite ban
Author Sally Rooney says she will continue to support Palestine Action, despite the group being proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK.
The award-winning Irish novelist said she intends to use the earnings of her work and her public platform to “go on supporting Palestine Action and direct action against genocide”.
Writing in the Irish Times, she said “if this makes me a supporter of terror under UK law, so be it”.
Her remarks come as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper again defended the proscription of Palestine Action, saying it is more than “a regular protest group known for occasional stunts”.
Palestine Action is a British pro-Palestinian direct action group that was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the government in July.
Their activities have predominantly targeted arms companies since the start of the current war in Gaza.
Rooney, who wrote bestsellers including Normal People and Intermezzo, has previously been a vocal backer of the protest group, writing in the Guardian in June that proscribing them would be an “alarming attack on free speech”.
She was speaking after some of its members broke into RAF Brize Norton and sprayed two planes with red paint, causing damages worth an estimated £7m.
Separately in 2021, she refused to allow Beautiful World, Where Are You to be translated into Hebrew by an Israeli publisher, which she said was in support of calls to boycott Israel over its policies towards Palestinians.
At the time, she said it would “be an honour” to have the book translated into Hebrew by a company which shared her political position.
In her latest Irish Times opinion piece, she said she will continue to use the proceeds of her work – including residuals from a BBC co-production of Normal People and Conversations with Friends – to keep supporting the group.
More than 700 people have been arrested since the group was banned by the government on 5 July – including more than 500 at a demonstration in central London last week.
Writing in the Observer on Sunday, Home Secretary Cooper said while many were aware of the Brize Norton incident, fewer would be aware of other incidents for which the group had claimed responsibility.
For example, in August 2024 alleged Palestine Action supporters broke into Elbit Systems UK in Bristol, an Israeli defence firm that has long been a key target.
Those allegations are due to come to trial in November. Eighteen people deny charges including criminal damage, assault causing actual bodily harm, violent disorder and aggravated burglary.
Cooper has also referenced a so-called “Underground Manual” from the group, which she said “provides practical guidance on how to identify targets to attack and how to evade law enforcement”.
“These are not the actions of a legitimate protest group,” Cooper said.
She also said she had received “disturbing information” which “covered ideas and planning for future attacks”.
Rooney – who lives in the west of Ireland – wrote: “The present UK government has willingly stripped its own citizens of basic rights and freedoms, including the right to express and read dissenting opinions, in order to protect its relationship with Israel.”
She said “the ramifications for cultural and intellectual life in the UK… are and will be profound”.
The BBC and Rooney’s management have been contacted for comment.
Israel has long rejected accusations of genocide, but leading Israeli and global human rights organisations have argued that the country’s conduct in the war in Gaza constitutes genocide against the Palestinian population.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 others taken hostage.
Israel’s offensive has since killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to figures from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.
