“I too support Palestine Action. If this makes me a “supporter of terror” under UK law, so be it.”

On Saturday, August 16th, Irish author Sally Rooney declared in an Irish Times opinion piece that she will be donating all proceeds from her work, including royalties from the BBC adaptations of her books, to “go on supporting Palestine Action.” Rooney also noted that she would have liked to publish the piece in a UK newspaper to inform the British public of her plans. However, this is not possible for one simple reason: it would be illegal.

Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government back in July, after direct action from the group targeted companies linked to the Israeli arms trade and the subsequent massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. The group used non-violent tactics such as occupying buildings, defacing property, and halting weapons production. However, the UK government argued that its tactics has made the group a “violent organisation” and a threat to national security and named the group a terrorist organisation. Under the Terrorism Act, being a member of Palestine Action or inviting support carries penalties of up to 14 years in prison. Last Saturday, 466 people were arrested in London for supporting Palestine Action and a 74 year old woman was arrested in Belfast for wearing a Palestine Action T-shirt.

When asked about Rooney’s comments in support of Palestine Action, a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer declined to address them directly but said: “There is a difference between showing support for a proscribed organisation, which is an offence under the Terrorism Act, and legitimate protest in support of a cause.”

When asked what message No 10 would send to anyone considering donating to the group, the spokesperson said: “Support for a proscribed organisation is an offence under the Terrorism Act and obviously the police will, as they have set out… implement the law within the law as you’d expect.”

Rooney currently lives in the West of Ireland where Palestine Action is not labelled a terrorist group. Although Ireland and the UK have very different official stances on Palestine, Rooney has criticised the Irish government’s silence on the UK’s actions. In particular, Rooney drew attention to UK’s policing of protesters, may of whom are Irish passport holders.

“But while Irish citizens – including potentially here on the island of Ireland – are accused of terrorism for protesting an acknowledged genocide, the Irish Government has so far remained silent. When our citizens are arrested under authoritarian regimes elsewhere, the State and its consular services tend to spring into action, or at least purport to, in order to defend the human rights of Irish passport holders,” Rooney wrote in the Irish Times piece. “Now that the jurisdiction in question is located next door – and indeed closer still – our leaders seem curiously unwilling to act. If the Government in Dublin truly believes that Israel is committing genocide, how can it look elsewhere while its nearest neighbour funds and supports that genocide and its own citizens are arrested simply for speaking out?”

Ultimately, Rooney’s actions, along with the hundreds of protesters arrested for supporting Palestine Action, highlight the glaring hypocrisy at play. While the UK government defends its own conduct and arrests peaceful demonstrators for acts as minor as wearing a T-shirt, it continues to sell arms to Israel, making it directly complicit in the genocidal killing of over 62,000 Palestinians in just two years. The Irish government cannot claim to oppose the genocide in Gaza while turning a blind eye to the criminalisation of its own citizens for resisting it. Silence, in this case, is not neutrality: it’s complicity.

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