Novelist Sally Rooney has vowed to continue supporting Palestine Action “in whatever way I can” using royalties from BBC adaptations of her books.
The Normal People author, 34, publicly reaffirmed her support for the direct-action group, which was designated a proscribed terrorist organisation by the Home Office last month.
It means showing support for the group is illegal under the Terrorism Act in the UK, punishable by a maximum of 14 years in prison.
In an impassioned piece published in the Irish Times, the writer hit out at the arrest of more than 500 “brave individuals” holding placards declaring “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” in London’s Parliament Square last weekend.
“In this context I feel obliged to state once more that – like the hundreds of protesters arrested last weekend – I too support Palestine Action,” she wrote.
“If this makes me a ‘supporter of terror’ under UK law, so be it. 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.
“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.”
She said she would happily publish the same statement in a UK paper, but noted that would now be illegal.
Ms Rooney accused the British government stripping its citizens of basic rights and freedoms “in order to protect its relationship with Israel”.
“The ramifications for cultural and intellectual life in the UK – where the eminent poet Alice Oswald has already been arrested, and an increasing number of artists and writers can no longer safely travel to Britain to speak in public – are and will be profound,” she added.
Ms Oswald, 58, who won the TS Eliot prize in 2002 and was professor of poetry at the University of Oxford, was among those detained in central London last week.
Afterwards, she said her motivation for taking part included the very personal experience of giving online poetry classes regularly to young people and children in Gaza.
Half of the protesters arrested and now facing potentially life-changing terror convictions were over 60, Metropolitan Police figures show.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper this weekend defended the decision to ban Palestine Action, insisting it is more than “a regular protest group”.
Ms Cooper said counterterrorism intelligence showed the organisation passed the tests to be proscribed under the 2000 Terrorism Act with “disturbing information” about future attacks.
“Protecting public safety and national security are at the very heart of the job I do,” she wrote in The Observer. “Were there to be further serious attacks or injuries, the government would rightly be condemned for not acting sooner to keep people safe.”
Protesters have vowed to continue defying the ban as Huda Ammori, the group’s founder, brings a legal challenge to the High Court in November.
