Sally Rooney Books Pulled From UK Over Palestine Action — SkimNews
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- Sally Rooney confirmed her U.K. publisher Faber will no longer supply her books in any format in the U.K., stating she is "wholly prepared to accept the consequences" of her support for Palestine Action.
- Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organization in the U.K. in July 2025 under the Terrorism Act 2000; the group uses direct-action protests aimed at "ending global participation in Israel's genocidal and apartheid regime."
- Rooney wrote an August 2025 Irish Times op-ed pledging to continue supporting Palestine Action, and in August 2025 cancelled a trip to England to collect a prize over fears of arrest, halting future public appearances there.
- Faber stated that current U.K. legislation prevents it from passing U.K. earnings to Rooney, calling it "an unconscionable situation for a publisher," and confirmed it will continue selling her works in other territories.
- Rooney noted that Palestine Action remains legal in the Republic of Ireland, where she resides, distinguishing her situation from U.K. enforcement under the Terrorism Act 2000.
- Gaza context cited in the article: since Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023 attack that killed over 1,200 people, Israeli military operations in Gaza have reportedly claimed over 75,000 lives according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Why it matters: This marks the first high-profile commercial casualty of the U.K.'s proscription of Palestine Action: a bestselling novelist with global reach (Normal People, Conversations with Friends) is effectively self-censored from the U.K. market to protect her publisher from criminal liability. It sets a concrete precedent that authors expressing solidarity with the proscribed group can be priced out of U.K. publication by their own publishers rather than formally banned.
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