UK publisher drops anti-Israel Irish writer over terror ties

(Oct. 15, 2026 / JNS)

Sally Rooney, an Irish author who has expressed support for the anti-Israel terrorist group Palestine Action in the U.K., is unable to profit from book sales there, her British publisher said. Her books will no longer be distributed by Faber & Faber due to her support for Palestine Action, the author has said on Wednesday.

“Current legislation in the U.K. has led to circumstances where Faber cannot pass on U.K. earnings to Sally Rooney for her work. To sell a writer’s work and not be able to pass on earnings is an unconscionable situation for a publisher,” Faber & Faber wrote in a statement published on Wednesday.

Rooney’s “Normal People” has sold more than a million copies in the United Kingdom, and her first novel, “Conversations with Friends,” sold more than 500,000 copies, according to The Irish Times.

Rooney last year said she would use proceeds from her sales to support Palestine Action after it was banned in the United Kingdom over the series of break-ins and assaults its members have perpetrated across the country. Supporting organizations banned under the U.K.’s Terrorism Act is an offense.

In August 2025, Rooney wrote an opinion piece in The Irish Times with the headline: “I support Palestine Action. If this makes me a ‘supporter of terror’ under UK law, so be it.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Rooney said: “In July 2025, the direct-action protest group Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organization in the U.K. The following month, I wrote an opinion piece expressing my intention to go on supporting Palestine Action, which is not a proscribed or otherwise prohibited group here in the Republic of Ireland. As a result, the fulfilment of contracts to publish my work in the U.K. could now constitute a serious criminal offence. After a process of consultation and deliberation, and with my full agreement, my publisher Faber has therefore determined that it can no longer supply my work within the U.K.”

The British government in July 2025 outlawed Palestine Action and declared it to be a terrorist organization after its followers vandalized aircraft at a Royal Air Force base, as well as a series of what the group called “occupations” of firms with ties to Israel.

In June, a British judge sentenced four Palestine Action activists to prison terms totaling over 20 years for a 2024 raid on an Elbit Systems UK factory that caused about £1 million (around $1.3 million) in damage and left a police officer with a fractured spine, a case he said had “terrorist connections.”