UK warns author Sally Rooney after pledge to fund banned Palestine Action

Award-winning Irish author had pledged to donate to campaign group now banned in Britain

The writer Sally Rooney had a statement published in The Irish Times that would now be illegal under British law. AFP

The UK government has warned the award-winning Irish author Sally Rooney that she would be committing a terrorist offence if she funds Palestine Action.

Ms Rooney, who has twice had novels adapted into BBC dramas, said she would use the earnings of her work and her platform to “go on supporting Palestine Action and direct action against genocide”.

“If this makes me a supporter of terror under UK law, so be it,” she wrote in The Irish Times, deliberately avoiding any legal risk if she published her support in a UK publication.

Responding to Ms Rooney on Monday, No 10 Downing Street said “support for a proscribed organisation is an offence under the Terrorism Act” and no one should be backing the group.

Palestine Action was designated a terrorist organisation in July for a string of direct action protests against weapons manufacturers, an RAF airbase and universities, which caused millions of pounds worth of damage.

But the move has caused outcry from campaigners who fear it ignores a long-standing tradition of direct action in the UK dating back to the Suffragettes and that it risks undermining terrorism laws.

More than 700 people who came out in support of the group have since have been arrested, with dozens charged.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper defended her decision to proscribe the group on Sunday, accusing them of conducting “an escalating campaign involving … criminal damage, intimidation, violence, weapons and serious injuries to individuals".

Ms Rooney said she would have liked to publish her statement in a UK newspaper but that this would now be illegal under the law.

Regarding her intention to use the royalties earned from UK publishers and the BBC to fund the group, she said: “If the British state considers this 'terrorism', then perhaps it should investigate the shady organisations that continue to promote my work and fund my activities, such as [retailer] WH Smith and the BBC."

The BBC has already faced backlash this year after it emerged that the child narrator of one of its Gaza documentaries was the son of a minister in Gaza's Hamas-led administration.

Questions were raised at the time as to whether payments made to the son's family for his participation could have been used to fund Hamas.

A BBC representative said of Ms Rooney's remarks: "Matters relating to proscribed organisations are for the relevant authorities."

A protester, 89, at a rally challenging the British government's proscription of Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws, in London. Reuters

'Selective enforcement'

Palestine Action – whose co-founder Richard Barnard was a member of Extinction Rebellion – once represented a small minority of people campaigning for the Palestinian cause in the UK.

But support for the group has grown exponentially since its proscription – with civil rights campaigners also joining the cause. More than 500 people were arrested for supporting the group in one day this month.

Labour peer, Shami Chakrabarti, warned the government ban is at risk of becoming an “I am Spartacus” moment, which could lead to more people taking to the streets to support the group.

Ms Rooney claimed the recent arrests – which include Irish citizens in the UK – were a "selective enforcement of anti-terror law".

She highlighted the activities of supporters of another proscribed organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force, who had repainted a loyalist mural in north Belfast after it was damaged by a storm last year.

“No arrests were made on that basis, nor has the mural been taken down, though the UVF is a proscribed terrorist organisation responsible for the murders of hundreds of civilians," she said.

“Palestine Action, proscribed under the same law, is responsible for zero deaths and has never advocated the use of violence against any human being. Why then are its supporters arrested for wearing T-shirts, while murals celebrating loyalist death squads are left untouched?”

Celebrity donations

Ms Rooney is not the first high-profile donor to Palestine Action. James 'Fergie' Chambers, an American communist and heir to a multibillion-pound conglomerate, said in a 2023 interview that he was paying Palestine Action’s legal fees.

Ms Cooper has previously spoken of her suspicions that Palestine Action was receiving funding from Iran, a claim the group dismissed as a “sham”.

Palestine Action previously told The National its donations came from “ordinary people” who support the movement. It does not publish the names of its major donors and still takes them in the form of cryptocurrency on its website.

Mick Napier, the founder of Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (which is not linked to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign), said he had seen a “groundswell” of public support for the group since the proscription came into effect.

He said his group was currently raising the funds to cover legal fees for people arrested for attending demonstrations in support of Palestine Action in recent weeks, and that donations ranged from £5 to £1,000 ($6.80 to ($1,355).