To sell a writer’s work and not be able to pass on earnings is an unconscionable situation for a publisher,” Faber said. The news has inflamed debate over the British government’s unprecedented decision to use terrorism powers to ban a group primarily known for property damage and disruption. The group describes its aim as halting the supply of weapons to Israel and ending what it describes as British complicity in Israel’s “genocide” of Palestinians.
More than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following the Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed approximately 1,200 people in Israel and resulted in 251 others taken hostage. In the absence of independent monitoring on the ground, the Gaza Health Ministry is the primary source for casualty data relied upon by humanitarian groups, journalists, and international bodies. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants and cannot be independently verified by TIME.
Data from the Israel Defense Forces as of May 2025 suggested a Palestinian civilian death rate of 83%. Rooney has long expressed her support for the group, and called the British proscription “a truly extreme assault on ordinary rights and freedoms.” Here’s what to know about the group and how the British government’s ban affects Rooney. Palestine Action is a pro-Palestinian group based in the U.K. that describes itself as a “direct action movement committed to ending global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime.” The group has targeted facilities linked to Israeli weapons manufacturing or supplies.
If one action stops one weapon from killing a Palestinian, then it’s all worth it,” the group’s website reads. Since its founding in 2020, members of Palestine Action have repeatedly damaged U.K. facilities linked to Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems. Elbit Systems U.K. denied claims that its facilities supplied the Israeli military.
In June 2025, Palestine Action members broke into R.A.F. Brize Norton, the U.K.’s largest air force base, and spray painted two aircraft. The British government banned the group in July 2025, proscribing it as a terrorist organization.
It was the first British proscription primarily based on property damage, rather than threat or use of violence against people, although the government said the group’s members have demonstrated “a willingness to use violence.” The group’s leaders have said it does not advocate or use violence against people. The ban has faced a series of legal challenges. In February, the High Court ruled it unlawful and disproportionate, but the Court of Appeal overturned that ruling in June.
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