Bestselling Irish author Sally Rooney has pledged to donate the proceeds from BBC productions of her novels to Palestine Action, a pro-Palestinian activist group in the United Kingdom that was designated as a terrorist organization in July.
“I too support Palestine Action,” wrote Rooney in an op-ed published in The Irish Times on Saturday. “If this makes me a ‘supporter of terror’ under UK law, so be it.”
Rooney has long been a fierce critic of Israel. In October 2021, Rooney decided not to publish her novel “Beautiful World, Where Are You?” with an Israeli publishing house because she supports a boycott of Israel, and three years later, she signed a letter accusing Israel of committing genocide and pledging to boycott all Israeli literary institutions.
Now, Rooney is pledging the residual fees from the BBC film adaptations of her novels “Normal People” and “Conversations with Friends” to “supporting Palestine Action and direct action against genocide in whatever way I can.” The BBC is Britain’s public broadcaster.
The announcement follows a government decision to ban Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act last month after its activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and spray-painted two planes to protest Britain’s support for Israel.
The ban made Palestine Action the first direct action protest group to be categorized as a terror group in Britain, a status it shares with organizations such as Hamas and al-Qaeda. (A member of the Irish rap group Kneecap was charged under the Terrorism Act in May for displaying a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London last year.)
Since its proscription, more than 700 people have been arrested in the U.K. for supporting Palestine Action, mostly at a mass protest earlier this month where hundreds of people were arrested for holding signs with the group’s name on them.
Rooney’s pledge to support Palestine Action may open her up to legal troubles in the U.K., a legal expert told The Guardian.
Rooney said she was prepared for any consequences. “Activists who disrupt the flow of weapons to a genocidal regime may violate petty criminal statutes, but they uphold a far greater law and a more profound human imperative: to protect a people and culture from annihilation,” she wrote in the op-ed.
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