Sally Rooney, the Irish writer behind acclaimed fiction novels like Conversations with Friends and Normal People, has pledged earnings from her books and their TV adaptations to supporting Palestine Action, a British pro-Palestinian protest organization.
“I want to be clear that I intend to use these proceeds of my work, as well as my public platform generally, to go on supporting Palestine Action and direct action against genocide in whatever way I can,” she wrote in an op-ed for The Irish Times on Saturday, August 16. The opinion piece and the pledge were prompted by the August 9 arrest of over 500 protesters in the UK on suspicion of terrorism after they showed support for Palestine Action.
The UK government has proscribed the group as a terrorist organization for organizing direct action protests against weapons manufacturers. In Rooney’s words, these protests involved “defacing buildings, breaking windows and occupying factories.”
The designation puts the civilian organization in parallel with known terrorist groups under UK law, like ISIS and the Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf group.
“If this makes me a ‘supporter of terror’ under UK law, so be it,” Rooney said of her continuing support for Palestine Action.
In response, British non-governmental organization Campaign Against Antisemitism took to social media to write, “We have reported Sally Rooney to Counter Terrorism Policing,” the UK police’s body for investigating and preventing terrorist activity. Rooney, however, lives in the Republic of Ireland. A Telegraph column also said that Rooney’s fame doesn’t give her “the right to fund terror.”
In 2021, Rooney refused to sell the Hebrew translation of her novel Beautiful World, Where Are You in line with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which continues to boycott businesses and firms that support Israel.
Her support for Palestine hasn’t wavered since then. In June this year, just before Palestine Action was declared a terrorist organization by the UK, Rooney wrote an op-ed for The Guardian, saying, “[Palestine Action] has never been responsible for any fatalities and does not pose any risk to the public. Its methods do involve property sabotage, which is, obviously, illegal. But if killing 23 civilians at an aid distribution site is not terrorism, how can we possibly be expected to accept that spray-painting a plane is?”
In her Irish Times op-ed, the writer emphasized that direct action is necessary to “halt the seemingly unstoppable machinery of violence.” She said, “We owe their courageous activists our gratitude and solidarity. And by now, almost two years into a live-streamed genocide, we owe the people of Palestine more than mere words.”
