Palestine Action is a direct action group founded in the United Kingdom in 2020. According to Huda Ammori, one of the organization’s cofounders, its purpose is to “take direct action against Israel’s arms trade in Britain.” In practice, this has taken the form of protests, sit-ins, and targeted property damage, primarily directed at defense companies. On July 1, 2025, less than two weeks after Palestine Action activists broke into the largest RAF station in Britain and attempted to damage aircraft, the government of Keir Starmer proscribed the group as a terrorist organization. Palestine Action challenged the ban, and in February 2026, the High Court of Justice ruled that the terrorist designation was unlawful. In June 2026 that ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeal, and it thus remained a crime to support or fund Palestine Action. Thousands were subsequently arrested, some simply for holding a sign that read “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”
Irish author Sally Rooney had pledged to use royalties from the sales of her books to support the organization after it was proscribed, as Palestine Action faced no such ban under Irish law. In September 2025 Rooney was unable to travel to London to collect a literary award, as doing so would have invited arrest. She subsequently cancelled all appearances and engagements in the United Kingdom. In October 2026 Rooney withdrew her books from shelves in the United Kingdom, as selling them could, in Rooney’s words, “constitute a serious criminal offence.”