Short answer: No. As of August 2026, Sally Rooney does not support Israel. The Irish novelist has been one of the most prominent literary voices backing the Palestinian cause, calling Israel's conduct in Gaza a "genocide," supporting the BDS cultural boycott of Israeli institutions, and pledging in August 2025 to keep funding Palestine Action, a group the UK government has proscribed as a terrorist organization.
What Sally Rooney has actually said and done
- October 2021: Rooney declined to sell the Hebrew translation rights for her novel "Beautiful World, Where Are You" to Modan, the Israeli publisher that had released her first two novels. She cited her support for the BDS cultural boycott and reports from Human Rights Watch and B'Tselem describing Israeli policy toward Palestinians as apartheid, according to Al Jazeera.
- March 16, 2024: Writing in the Irish Times, Rooney said the killing in Gaza had been supported by Ireland's "good friend" in the White House, criticizing US backing for Israel's military campaign.
- October 28, 2024: Rooney joined more than 1,000 writers, including Percival Everett, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Jonathan Lethem, in a pledge organized by the Palestine Festival of Literature to boycott Israeli literary institutions, publishers, festivals, and agencies they judged complicit in what the pledge called genocide in Gaza, and to refuse Hebrew translation deals under those terms, per the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
- August 16, 2025: In another Irish Times opinion piece, Rooney pledged to use royalties from her work to keep funding Palestine Action, writing that she intended to "go on supporting Palestine Action" and to back "direct action against genocide," as reported by Al Jazeera and confirmed by Algemeiner.
- August 18, 2025: The UK Prime Minister's office publicly warned Rooney that funding Palestine Action, which had been banned as a terrorist organization under the Terrorism Act since July 2025, is a criminal offense. Rooney had deliberately published her pledge in an Irish outlet rather than a British one because doing so in the UK "would now be illegal," per Al Jazeera, a point later revisited by Middle East Monitor.
- May 2026: Rooney agreed to release a Hebrew translation of her novel "Intermezzo" through November Books, a small Israeli nonprofit publisher she and PACBI, the BDS movement's founding cultural-boycott body, vetted as boycott-compliant: no West Bank settlement operations, no Israeli government funding, and an endorsement of Palestinian rights. She worked alongside the left-wing Israeli and Palestinian outlets +972 Magazine and Local Call, and said she had never meant to boycott the Hebrew language itself, according to the Times of Israel and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
- June 17, 2026: Speaking at a public meeting in Dublin, Rooney said the world's richest and most powerful nations were facilitating "undisguised genocide" in Gaza and argued that traditional peaceful protest had not been effective, per the Irish Times.
Context: an author with no personal ties to Israel, but a consistent political record
Sally Rooney is an Irish novelist known for "Normal People," "Conversations with Friends," "Beautiful World, Where Are You," and "Intermezzo." She has no personal ties to Israel, no reported visits, and no Jewish-identity connection anywhere in the public record. Her engagement with Israel has been entirely political and literary, and it has run in one direction consistently since at least 2021: opposition to Israeli government policy, participation in the BDS cultural boycott, and increasingly direct financial and rhetorical backing of pro-Palestinian activism.
Her May 2026 decision to allow a Hebrew edition of "Intermezzo" was not a reversal of that stance. She and PACBI selected the one Israeli publisher, among 98 considered, that met the boycott movement's own exemption criteria. As she put it herself, the goal had never been to boycott the Hebrew language, only Israeli state-linked institutions.
The bottom line
Sally Rooney does not support Israel. She has been a sustained, high-profile critic of Israeli government policy since at least 2021, backs the BDS cultural boycott, has repeatedly called Israel's Gaza campaign a genocide, and pledged in 2025 to keep funding a UK-proscribed pro-Palestinian direct-action group even after being warned by the British government. Her 2026 Hebrew edition of "Intermezzo" went through a boycott-compliant Israeli publisher chosen with BDS's own vetting body, so it does not represent a change in her position on Israel. It reflects the distinction she has stated plainly: she boycotts Israeli state-linked institutions, not the Hebrew language.
Wear where you actually stand
When a public figure's record points the other way, it's a good moment to make your own position visible. Shop Israel's I Stand With Israel bracelet is a simple, everyday way to show support for Israel without saying a word.
Related
Does Haruki Murakami Support Israel?
Does Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Support Israel?
Does Emma Watson Support Israel?
Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
