Bestselling author Sally Rooney has expressed her support for Palestine Action in response to the Home Secretary’s plans to proscribe the activist group as a terrorist organisation.
In an article for the Guardian, the acclaimed writer of Normal People said the move would represent “an alarming curtailment of free speech”.
On Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced her decision to proscribe Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws, after activists from the group broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire – the largest RAF station – last week and spray-painted two military planes red.
Cooper’s announcement came during a protest against the move at Trafalgar Square after police banned them from protesting outside Parliament. She will lay out an order at Parliament next week which, if passed, will make membership and support for the protest group illegal.
Irish writer Rooney compared the recent Palestine Action stunt at the RAF station to reports that the Israeli military killed 23 Palestinians near a distribution centre in central Gaza, run by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) on Friday.
“One of these actions involved the intentional use of lethal violence against civilians, resulting in the deaths of 23 loved and irreplaceable human beings,” wrote Rooney.
“The other involved no violence against any living things and resulted in no deaths or injuries. The UK government has now announced its intention to deal with one of these incidents as a terrorist offence. Guess which.”
The IDF said the incident was under review, but confirmed troops fired warning shots after crowds of people gathered near the aid centre. An Israeli aircraft then struck "several suspects" who the military said continued walking towards troops.
Rooney, who most released her fourth book Intermezzo last September, went on to defend the acts of property damage carried out by activists from Palestine Action, comparing the group’s measures to those of the Suffragettes, the gay right’s movement and the anti-apartheid struggle. “Genuine political resistance has always involved intentional law-breaking,” she wrote.
Rooney suggested that the extreme methods of Palestine Action were necessary when it comes to trying to pressure the UK government and British companies from cutting ties with Israel, because “mass peaceful protest, even with majority support among the wider population, has yielded no results”.
She went on to defend the group further, arguing that the organisation was not armed, and posed no risk to the public. Nevertheless, if Cooper’s order is passed next week, it will be a criminal offence to join the group or express support for it.
“If the government proceeds down this path, any ordinary person in the UK could in theory be sent to prison simply for expressing verbal support for non-violent activism. Quite aside from the broader principle, this would represent an alarming curtailment of free speech,” she said.
“I can only say that I admire and support Palestine Action wholeheartedly – and I will continue to, whether that becomes a terrorist offence or not.”
The Community Security Trust welcomed the news that Palestine Action were set to be proscribed. “We and our partners have long asked that government and police act against this blatant conspiracy of ideologically-driven violence, intimidation and criminality,” CST said on social media.
“The recent escalation in their extremist activities shows why they are a threat to national security and community cohesion”, the group added.
Last month, Palestine Action claimed responsibility for vandalising a Stamford Hill shop, which the Metropolitan Police said was being treated as “racially aggravated criminal damage”.
