A high-profile British journalist and author has refused to back down amid demands from pro-Israel lobbying groups that law enforcement open a criminal investigation into her public support for Irish novelist Sally Rooney, who has pulled her entire catalog of works from UK distribution over her backing of the proscribed activist group Palestine Action.
Sarah Helm, a 83-year-old veteran former foreign correspondent for *The Independent* and long-standing critic of Israeli government policy toward Palestinians, is married to Jonathan Powell, who currently serves as national security, foreign policy, and intelligence advisor to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government, a role he retained after Andy Burnham took office earlier this year.
The controversy ignited after veteran Sky News journalist Adam Boulton attacked Rooney during an on-air segment Thursday, claiming the best-selling author held a “very strong pro-Palestine, and, I have to say, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish stance”. In response, Helm posted a concise, pointed retort to X: “God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action. Sounds like Adam would have all our books swept off the shelves in a jiffy.”
Shortly after Helm’s post went live, Campaign Against Antisemitism – a pro-Israel organisation that has repeatedly faced accusations of bad-faith targeting of public critics of Israeli policy – formally called on London’s Metropolitan Police to launch a criminal probe into Helm, demanding she “face the full force of the law” over her comments.
Instead of retreating, Helm has doubled down on her position, drawing widespread cross-party support from critics of the Starmer government’s controversial July 2025 ban on Palestine Action. The proscription, which marked the first time a UK government has outlawed a direct action protest group, criminalises membership in or public expressions of support for the organisation – which targets infrastructure tied to companies manufacturing weapons for export to Israel – with penalties of up to 14 years in prison. Human rights groups have universally decried the ban as a draconian attack on free speech, and thousands of people across the UK have been arrested for low-level acts of support, including holding pro-Palestine Action placards at demonstrations, since the ban took effect.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski publicly defended Helm’s comments, telling independent outlet Middle East Eye that the journalist “is speaking absolute common sense and should be commended for her bravery”. Polanski pointed to the sweeping fallout of the proscription: “In a week when the Labour government’s ludicrous and authoritarian proscription of Palestine Action has led to the banning of one of the most influential authors from our bookshelves and pensioners continue to be arrested for opposing a genocide, it is obvious to everyone apart from this Labour government that Palestine Action must be de-proscribed immediately.”
When reached for comment Saturday, Helm pointed reporters to a 2020 interview she conducted for Middle East Eye with 92-year-old Yaakov Sharett, son of Moshe Sharett – one of Israel’s founding fathers, the country’s first foreign minister, and its second prime minister. In that conversation, Yaakov Sharett offered a scathing rebuke of modern Israeli policy that aligns closely with Helm’s own views. “Now, at 92-years-old, I realise that the story started with the very idea of Zionism, which was a utopian idea. It was meant to save Jewish lives but at the cost of a nation of occupants who inhabited Palestine at this time. The conflict was unavoidable from the beginning,” he told Helm. He went further to say that “the treatment of the Palestinians today is Nazi treatment. We don’t have gas chambers, of course, but the mentality is the same. It is racial hatred. They are treated as subhuman,” branding Israel a “criminal state” and arguing that distinguishing between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of Israel is a critical line that global observers too often fail to uphold.
Helm, who released her latest book *Gaza: The Long Road to Destruction, 1870-2024* – a comprehensive historical account of the region featuring interviews with 1948 Nakba survivors – earlier this year, addressed the growing backlash to her post in a follow-up statement on X. “Thanks to all supporters. As an 83 yr old survivor of the Nakba and one of my many friends in Rafah (now obliterated) said to me when I was last there, ‘keep writing Sarah we need all the pencils we can get’,” she wrote.
70-year-old retired tax adviser and grandmother Marji Mansfield, who was arrested earlier this year for defying the Palestine Action ban and had counter-terrorism officers visit her home over a short social media clip expressing support for the group, said Helm’s willingness to speak out reflects the growing resistance to the government’s crackdown. “Sarah Helm is similarly at risk of arrest for speaking out against the first ever ban of a direct action protest group in Britain. We are on the right side of history,” Mansfield said.
As of this weekend, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that Helm’s original post “is in the process of being assessed to determine whether any further police investigation may be required”. A Downing Street spokesperson distanced the government from Helm’s comments, noting that “These views are held by an individual who does not represent the government in any capacity,” even as internal fractures within the Labour administration over the ban have begun to surface in recent weeks.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband acknowledged last month that the Burnham government is internally reviewing the political wisdom of the proscription, admitting that the administration never intended the ban to lead to mass arrests of ordinary activists. “I don’t think anyone’s intent was to have those people criminalised, but obviously the Supreme Court has got to look at this issue, and obviously it’s something we keep looking at as government,” Miliband said.
The controversy follows news earlier this week that Rooney, who previously canceled a 2024 trip to England to accept a major literary award over fears she would be arrested for her pro-Palestine views, would voluntarily withdraw all her books from UK distribution after stating she would donate a portion of her book royalties to Palestine Action following the group’s proscription.