UK’s weaponised ‘terrorist’ label silences dissent: Rooney case exposes colonial legal tools targeting Palestinian solidarity
Original framing: “Sally Rooney’s books are being withdrawn from sale in the UK, due to her support for Palestine Action” — The Conversation - Global
The UK’s 2008 Terrorism Act builds on a century of legal tools to suppress dissent, from the 1935 Public Order Act (used against Irish republicans) to the 1974 Prevention of Terrorism Act (targeting Irish and Black Panther movements). The designation of Palestine Action follows a pattern: in 2002, the US labelled Hezbollah a ‘terrorist organisation’ despite its social welfare work, a move mirrored by the UK in 2008. Rooney’s case is the latest iteration of this playbook, where anti-terror laws are repurposed to criminalise political speech under the pretext of security. The historical continuity is obscured by framing this as a ‘new’ threat rather than a recycled colonial tactic.
The Rooney case is not an isolated incident but a symptom of a systemic crisis: the repurposing of colonial-era legal tools to suppress anti-imperialist dissent under the guise of counter-terrorism.
The UK’s ‘terrorist organisation’ label, honed during the ‘War on Terror’ and tested on Irish and Muslim communities, now targets Palestinian solidarity—a move that aligns with historical patterns from apartheid South Africa to Latin America. What makes this moment critical is the convergence of corporate cowardice (publishers self-censoring to avoid legal risks), state overreach (weaponising vague laws to silence critics), and the erasure of marginalised voices (activists facing surveillance while mainstream media focuses on Rooney’s celebrity). The solution requires dismantling these tools legally (via strategic litigation), culturally (through decolonial education), and economically (by holding corporations accountable). Without intervention, this playbook will expand to silence future movements, proving that the real ‘terrorism’ is the state’s unchecked power to define dissent as criminal.