LONDON: The Palestinian ambassador to Ireland has praised author Sally Rooney for her support of the group Palestine Action, which is banned in the UK.
“Sally Rooney is using her voice to call out international law and human rights violations in Palestine,” Dr. Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid said on Monday.
“I hope these calls result in practical actions that will stop the horrors we’re witnessing carried out by Israel in Palestine; to stop the genocide and forced displacement and end the Israeli occupation.”
It comes after the award-wining writer said she would use earnings from BBC adaptations of her books to support Palestine Action following its proscription in the UK as a terrorist organization after a series of incidents, including activists breaking into a Royal Air Force base in England and spraying red paint on two military planes.
Support for, or membership of, a proscribed group in the UK carries a potential prison term of up to 14 years.
The “Normal People” author wrote in the Irish Times that she would use her money and platform to support the group’s “direct action against genocide in whatever way I can,” and that if doing so “makes me a ‘supporter of terror’ under UK law, so be it.”
The BBC has said Rooney, who does not live in the UK, has never been employed by the corporation, and that her views and money are her own to do with as she chooses.
“Matters relating to proscribed organisations are for the relevant authorities,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement.
