She is “almost certain” that her books will soon no longer be published in the United Kingdom, Irish writer Sally Rooney said this week. She is a mega hit and is seen as one of the great literary voices of the millennial generation.
What she faces: she uses the income she earns from her work to support Palestine Action, a British pro-Palestinian action group that has been banned since July. That falls under the Terrorism Act. Rooney has no plans to withdraw her support from the group. She already decided against one in September travel to the UK, where she would receive a literary prize, to avoid arrest. Now she suspects she will have to stop working in the UK.
But it could turn out differently. A co-founder of Palestine Action is challenging the ban in the UK Supreme Court, arguing that a ban goes against the right to protest. A judicial review will take place on Wednesday, Thursday and Tuesday 2 December. Rooney made her statements in a witness statement before the same court, to strengthen the action group’s case.
Sally Rooney compares the activists’ actions with the suffragettes, the anti-apartheid movement and the struggle for gay rights
Her publisher Faber & Faber, Rooney says, may no longer be able to transfer the royalties she receives from her previous books because the company risks being accused of financing terrorism. Authors are often paid via an advance, after publication they receive the royalties transferred. Rooney suspects that her old books, which are still selling well, will also have to be taken off the market in the UK. Intermezzowhich came out in 2024, is still a bestseller at Waterstones and Foyles bookstores. The publisher has not yet responded to questions from NRC.
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Rooney has been committed to the Palestinian cause for some time. In 2021, she decided on the translation rights for her novel Beautiful World, Where Are You not to sell to an Israeli publishing house. Her first two novels had already been published in Hebrew translation by Israel’s Modan Publishing House. She would, she said at the time, “consider it an honor” to make her work available in Hebrew, but she supports the boycott and sanctions movement that wants to put economic pressure on Israel to adhere to the international legal order.
Illegal
Palestine Action was founded in 2020 with the aim of ending “Israeli apartheid” and halting Israeli arms trade with the UK. The organization was designated a terrorist organization this year, with broad support in the British House of Commons. “We should have no illusions, Palestine Action is not a legitimate protest group,” stated Deputy Secretary of State for Security Dan Jarvis. He referred to the use of smoke bombs and damage caused to submarines and NATO equipment.
The designation as a terrorist organization followed a burglary by activists at a military base in Oxfordshire. There, two planes were sprayed with red paint and damaged with crowbars, causing almost 8 million euros in damage. “Of course,” Rooney wrote The Guardian“the activists knew their actions were illegal.” She compares the actions to those of previous political movements, such as the suffragettes who fought for women’s voting rights, the anti-apartheid movement, and the fight for gay rights. “Intentionally breaking the law has always been part of that.”
Al-Qaeda and ISIS
Now Palestine Action is on the same list as Al-Qaeda and IS. The decision was made under the 2000 Terrorism Act, which has not previously been used for such a protest group, said political economist Oscar Berglund of the University of Bristol in NRC.
Since the introduction of the ban, hundreds of people have been arrested for expressing support for the group, including Dutch people who participated in demonstrations in the UK via Extinction Rebellion. Of more than two hundred people who showed their support for the action group in court this week, 143 people were arrested, the Metropolitan Police told the BBC.
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Increased arrests have Britons wondering: how freely can they speak?
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