Best-selling Irish author Sally Rooney has told the high court that the proscription of Palestine Action under terror laws means she is unlikely to be able to publish new novels in the UK and may have to withdraw her current books from sale.
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Best-selling Irish author Sally Rooney has told the high court that the proscription of Palestine Action under terror laws means she is unlikely to be able to publish new novels in the UK and may have to withdraw her current books from sale.
The ban on Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation could also leave the Normal People author’s British publisher and the BBC - which has adapted two of Rooney’s works for TV - at risk of being accused of funding terrorism if they pay her royalties, she said.
The effect on Rooney’s work was held up as an example of how the ban is impacting freedom of expression on the second day of the landmark judicial review into whether the government’s proscription of Palestine Action is lawful.
Rooney has repeatedly affirmed her support for Palestine Action, which has targeted the sites and subsidiaries of Israeli arms company Elbit Systems in the UK amid Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
In witness statements provided to the high court on 27 November, Rooney said Israel had committed genocide in Gaza – a view shared by a UN commission. She said Palestine Action's activity was from a “long and proud tradition of civil disobedience - the deliberate breaking of laws as an act of protest”.
Rooney added: “I myself have publicly advocated the use of direct action, including property sabotage, in the cause of climate justice. It stands to reason that I should support the same range of tactics in the effort to prevent genocide.”
Back in August, Rooney said she intended to use royalties from her work “to go on supporting Palestine Action”. Following this, Rooney said she was warned by the independent producer of her BBC dramatisations that any payment to her for those shows could be a breach of terrorism laws.
In September, she was advised not to travel to the UK to accept the Sky Arts Award for Literature in recognition of her latest novel, Intermezzo.
Rooney has also called out the “years-long imprisonment without trial” of Palestine Action activists and expressed fears for those currently on hunger strike.
The final day of the judicial review is scheduled for Tuesday 2 December.
posted by Satish Sharma at
09:46
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