UK bookstores scramble as Sally Rooney's novels are withdrawn because she supports Palestine Action

LONDON (AP) — British booksellers are caught up in a battle over terrorism and free speech after Irish novelist Sally Rooney said her books can no longer be sold in the U.K. because she financially supports the banned group Palestine Action .

The announcement by Rooney’s British publisher that it will no longer distribute her books has reignited debate over the U.K. government’s decision last year to outlaw the direct-action protest group as a terrorist organization. The ban makes membership in or support for Palestine Action a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Rooney, 35, is the critically praised author of four novels: “Conversations with Friends,” “Normal People,” “Beautiful World, Where are You” and “Intermezzo.” Her books have sold millions of copies, and both “Conversations with Friends” and “Normal People” were adapted for television by the BBC.

She supports the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which calls for boycotts of Israeli businesses, universities and cultural institutions over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. Israel views the movement as an attack on the legitimacy of the Jewish state.

After the U.K. banned Palestine Action in July 2025, Rooney said she would use proceeds from her books and their TV adaptations to support the group. On Wednesday her U.K. publisher, Faber, said that paying her royalties could violate the terror ban and it had “taken the decision that we can no longer supply her works in the U.K. in any format.”

It said the decision had been made with Rooney's agreement.

“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,” the writer said in a statement.

Faber’s announcement left British bookstores scrambling to understand whether they were breaking the law by selling Rooney’s books.

The Booksellers Association later said it had “confirmed with Faber that whilst those titles are no longer available to U.K. bookshops to order, they can continue to sell their existing stock within the U.K. market.”

Some stores rushed to stock up on Rooney’s novels, but found distributors had already run out.

“We were thinking, we’ll just get a whole bunch before we stop being able to,” said Lucy Burke, a bookseller at London’s Camden Town Bookshop. “Because she’s a hugely popular seller here, and quite evergreen. But now it seems like what we have is all we’re going to have.”

Burke described the situation as “absolutely ridiculous” and said it amounted to censorship of “one of our most prominent writers.”

Palestine Action, founded in 2020, aims to stop U.K. military support for Israel, which it says is committing genocide against the Palestinians – a claim Israel strongly denies.

The group says it aims to stop genocide by disrupting “corporate enablers of the Israeli military-industrial complex.”

In 2024 its activists broke into a factory owned by Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems UK, smashing equipment with sledgehammers and crowbars. The next year, activists broke into a Royal Air Force base in June 2025, sprayed red paint into the engines of two tanker planes and caused further damage with crowbars.

The group says it does not advocate violence against people, but a police officer suffered a fractured spine when she was hit with a sledgehammer during the factory break-in.

The British government says Palestine Action has “carried out acts of terrorism, celebrated those who took part in them and promoted the use of violence."

“The proscription of Palestine Action does not affect lawful protest in support of the Palestinian cause, which remains a fundamental democratic right,” the Home Office said in a statement.

Civil liberties groups say the ban unjustifiably restricts the rights to protest and free speech. In response to the government’s decision, thousands of people have tested the law by silently holding signs reading “I support Palestine Action.”

More than 3,000 people have been arrested , and more than 1,200 have been charged under the Terrorism Act, though no one has yet been convicted.

The scale of the arrests, and the profile of those detained – including retirees in their 80s and 90s – has put Britain’s Labour Party government under pressure.

The center-left government has tried to rebuild bridges with pro-Palestinian supporters since Prime Minister Andy Burnham replaced Keir Starmer in July.

Last month the U.K. formally recognized a Palestinian state and banned goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said his message to people “moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people” is “We hear you. You were right.”

The government has not lifted the ban on Palestine Action, however, and the group continues to challenge its proscription in court.

The High Court ruled in February that classing Palestine Action as a terror group alongside the likes of al-Qaida and Hamas was disproportionate and unlawful. The Court of Appeal overturned that decision in June, saying outlawing the group was “justified and proportionate.”

Next month the group’s lawyers will ask the country’s top court, the U.K. Supreme Court, to quash the ban.

John Clegg, a bookseller at the London Review Bookshop, told The Guardian that Rooney’s stance could help in changing the law.

“Good on her for taking a stand, it seems a ridiculous law. If this thing convinces the Home Office to move faster to get rid of it, I’m all for it.”