Double Down
The author and her publisher say the UK's ban of Palestine Action means Rooney's work must leave shelves.
Award-winning Irish author Sally Rooney says she cannot publish or sell her books in the UK because of her support for a direct action group.
The group, Palestine Action, says it is committed to “ending global complicity with Israel’s genocidal apartheid regime,” according to their website. Last year, UK officials designated the group as a terrorist organization, a ban upheld after a lengthy legal battle. Under the UK’s terrorism act, this makes public membership, support, or financial aid raised for the group a punishable crime with prison time up to 14 years.
Rooney is a best-selling author known for her novels about young adult life and relationships, Normal People, Beautiful World, Where Are You, Intermezzo, and Conversations With Friends. In 2022, she was named one of Time’s most influential people. Her books were turned into two television series, Normal People (2020) and Conversations With Friends (2022). In addition to her literary work, she’s been a vocal advocate for Palestinian relief and aid.
In a 2025 op-ed published in the Irish Times, she wrote that she would continue to use the proceeds from her books to support Palestine Action; noting that the terror designation put vandalism, public demonstrations, and base disruptions on the same level as al-Qaeda war crimes and was an attempt by the UK government to police political speech.
“The Irish Government – along with virtually every humanitarian organisation worldwide – has recognised that Israel is committing genocide in Palestine. Genocide is the gravest of international crimes and, for most of us, quite aside from any legal framework, the most abhorrent wrong imaginable,” she wrote at the time. “Activists who disrupt the flow of weapons to a genocidal regime may violate petty criminal statutes, but they uphold a far greater law and a more profound human imperative: to protect a people and culture from annihilation.” (Humanitarian groups and a United Nations commission have said Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide. Israel and its allies, including the United States, have denied this.)
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Following the op-ed, Rooney won the Sky Arts literary prize for her book Intermezzo, but was unable to attend the ceremony because she said she could “no longer safely enter the UK” without the fear of arrest. Now, Rooney says her books will be removed from UK shelves, since her continued support for Palestine Action is considered a crime.
“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 UK,” Rooney said in a statement to the Guardian. “I have made every effort to be honest with the public about my beliefs and intentions, and I am wholly prepared to accept the consequences.”
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Faber, Rooney’s UK and Ireland publisher, told the Guardian that Rooney’s pledge to use book sales to support Palestine Action — even after their ban — means they cannot legally give her continued royalties for her book sales. “To sell a writer’s work and not be able to pass on earnings is an unconscionable situation for a publisher,” the statement read. “As such, and in full agreement with Sally, we have taken the decision that we can no longer supply her works in the UK in any format. We remain the proud publisher of her remarkable body of work, which we will continue to sell in other territories.”
Rooney has sold over 1 million copies of Normal People and is considered a generational voice in the literary world. In under a decade, she wrote four critically acclaimed novels and has never gone more than three years without publishing a new work. If that pattern stays consistent and the UK ban on Palestine Action continues, the UK publishing world could be looking at a future Rooney release available everywhere except in the market where she made her name.