UK PM adviser’s wife expresses ‘support’ for Palestine Action

Police reviewing social media post by writer Sarah Helm, wife of Burnham’s National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell.

Campaigners from the Palestine Action group hold signs during a protest outside the venue of the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool, UK, in September [File: Temilade Adelaja/Reuters]

British police are reviewing a social media post by the wife of National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell in which she appears to endorse Palestine Action, a group proscribed in the country as a “terrorist” organisation.

“God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action,” Sarah Helm, a writer who is married to Powell – Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s national security adviser – wrote on X on Thursday.

list 1 of 3 ‘Not backing down’: The Britons pushed towards Palestine by Gaza genocide

list 2 of 3 Sally Rooney books withdrawn from sale in UK over Palestine Action support

list 3 of 3 Sally Rooney can’t sell her books in UK over support for Palestine Action

She was responding to a post defending Irish novelist Sally Rooney , who this week announced her books would no longer be sold in the United Kingdom over her plans to use her royalties to support Palestine Action.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson on Friday said Helm’s post is “being assessed to determine whether any further police investigation may be required”.

A government spokesperson cited by the Reuters news agency said the views expressed in Helm’s post “are held by an individual who does not represent the government in any capacity”.

‘Absurdly authoritarian ban’

UK-based activist group Defend Our Juries defended Helm for defying what it called an “absurdly authoritarian ban on Palestine Action”.

“We know of 36 people who have been arrested and had their homes raided for similarly expressing support for Palestine Action on social media,” said a spokesperson for the group.

“We hope Sarah will not face the same treatment for standing up for free speech and Palestinian lives.”

The UK government outlawed Palestine Action in July 2025, after activists from the group broke into a Royal Air Force base and sprayed red paint on two aircraft to protest against UK military support for Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Being a member or a supporter is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Since the ban went into effect, police have arrested more than 3,500 people in the UK for alleged support of the group, many of them for holding up placards, according to rights group Amnesty International.

Palestine Action has contested its proscription, but the Court of Appeal upheld it in June .

The UK’s new Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband last month said the government was “looking at” the Palestine Action ban, adding that he did not believe mass arrests resulting from its proscription were “anyone’s intent”.

警方正在审查作家莎拉·赫尔姆（Sarah Helm）在社交媒体上发布的帖子，她是伯纳姆的国家安全顾问乔纳森·鲍威尔（Jonathan Powell）的妻子。

9 月，巴勒斯坦行动组织的活动人士在英国利物浦工党年会会场外举行抗议活动，举着标语牌。[图片：Temilade Adelaja/路透社]

英国警方正在审查国家安全顾问乔纳森·鲍威尔的妻子在社交媒体上发布的一条帖子，她在帖子中似乎支持巴勒斯坦行动组织，该组织在英国被列为“恐怖”组织。

“上帝保佑我们这些支持巴勒斯坦和巴勒斯坦行动的作家，”莎拉·赫尔姆（Sarah Helm）周四在X上写道。莎拉·赫尔姆是一位作家，她的丈夫鲍威尔是总理安迪·伯纳姆的国家安全顾问。

列表 1/3 “绝不退缩”：加沙种族灭绝将英国人推向巴勒斯坦

因支持巴勒斯坦行动组织，萨莉·鲁尼的三本书籍在英国下架，以下列出其中第二本。

列表 3/3：萨莉·鲁尼因支持巴勒斯坦行动而无法在英国销售其书籍。

她回应的是一篇为爱尔兰小说家萨莉·鲁尼辩护的帖子。萨莉·鲁尼本周宣布，由于她计划将版税用于支持巴勒斯坦行动组织，她的书将不再在英国销售。

伦敦警察厅发言人周五表示，警方正在评估赫尔姆的职位，以确定是否需要进行进一步的警方调查。

路透社援引一位政府发言人的话说，赫尔姆在帖子中表达的观点“仅代表个人，并不代表政府的任何立场”。

“荒谬的专制禁令”

英国维权组织“捍卫我们的陪审团”为赫尔姆辩护，称其无视了该组织所谓的“对巴勒斯坦行动的荒谬专制禁令”。

“我们知道有 36 人因在社交媒体上表达对巴勒斯坦行动的支持而被捕，他们的住所也遭到搜查，”该组织的一位发言人说。

“我们希望莎拉不会因为捍卫言论自由和巴勒斯坦人的生命而遭受同样的待遇。”

2025年7月，英国政府取缔了“巴勒斯坦行动”组织。此前，该组织成员闯入英国皇家空军基地，并在两架飞机上喷涂红色油漆，以抗议英国支持以色列对加沙发动的种族灭绝战争。加入或支持该组织最高可判处14年监禁。

据人权组织国际特赦组织称，自禁令生效以来，英国警方已逮捕了 3500 多人，他们被指控支持该组织，其中许多人因举标语牌而被捕。

巴勒斯坦行动组织对禁令提出异议，但上诉法院于 6 月维持了禁令。

英国新任外交大臣埃德·米利班德上个月表示，政府正在“研究”对巴勒斯坦行动组织的禁令，并补充说，他不认为禁止该组织会导致大规模逮捕是“任何人的意图”。