LONDON: Irish novelist Sally Rooney has said she intends to use royalties from the BBC to fund Palestine Action, a group banned in the UK last month under terrorism legislation, it was reported on Sunday.
The “Normal People” author made the remarks in a column for the Irish Times, where she argued that if her actions are considered terrorism under British law, “so be it.”
She wrote: “My books, at least for now, are still published in Britain, and are widely available in bookshops and even supermarkets, in recent years the UK’s state broadcaster has also televised two fine adaptations of my novels, and therefore regularly pays me residual fees.”
She continued: “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.
“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 WH Smith and the BBC.”
The broadcaster and bookseller have not yet commented on Rooney's remarks.
Palestine Action was proscribed by the UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in July after activists allegedly broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and damaged two military aircraft, causing £7 million ($9.5 million) of damage. Membership, support or funding of the group carries a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
Rooney, whose novels “Normal People” and “Conversations with Friends” have been adapted into BBC dramas, said she felt compelled to speak out after “more than 500 peaceful protesters” were arrested in a single day on Aug. 9.
“If this makes me a ‘supporter of terror’ under UK law, so be it,” she wrote.
She noted that in the six weeks since the ban, police had arrested more than 700 people for supporting the group.
According to the Metropolitan Police, a further 60 individuals are set to be prosecuted, while Norfolk Police confirmed that 13 people were detained at a protest in Norwich on Saturday.
Rooney said those arrested included an Irish citizen and a woman in Belfast.
She criticized what she described as “political policing,” contrasting the arrests with the absence of action when a mural celebrating the proscribed Ulster Volunteer Force was repainted in north Belfast last year.
“Palestine Action, proscribed under the same law, is responsible for zero deaths and has never advocated the use of violence against any human being,” she said.
“Why then are its supporters arrested for wearing T-shirts, while murals celebrating loyalist death squads are left untouched?”
The author also questioned why Dublin, where the government has made its stance clear that Israel is committing genocide, had not intervened.
“Why then are its supporters arrested for protesting an acknowledged genocide?” she asked.
Rooney has previously expressed support for Palestine Action in a witness statement submitted to the High Court in London, where the proscription is being challenged by one of its founders.
She accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government of stripping citizens of “basic rights and freedoms” in order to protect ties with Israel.
The ramifications, she said, were “profound,” warning that “an increasing number of artists and writers can no longer safely travel to Britain to speak in public.”
