Prominent journalist and author Sarah Helm has remained defiant after pro-Israel groups urged the Metropolitan Police to investigate her over an X post backing Sally Rooney, the Irish author whose books are being withdrawn from the UK market over her support of Palestine Action.
Helm is the wife of Jonathan Powell, who served as former prime minister Keir Starmer's adviser on national security, foreign policy and intelligence - and remained in the role when Burnham become prime minister.
Responding to the journalist Adam Boulton, who on Sky News on Thursday criticised Rooney and accused her of taking a "very strong pro-Palestine, and, I have to say, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish stance", Helm posted: "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."
Campaign Against Antisemitism, a group that has been accused of targeting critics of Israel, called on the police to investigate Helm and make her "face the full force of the law".
But Green Party leader Zack Polanski told Middle East Eye: "Sarah Helm is speaking absolute common sense and should be commended for her bravery.
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"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."
Helm is a former foreign correspondent for The Independent newspaper and has been a longtime critic of the Israeli government's policies towards Palestinians.
Asked to comment on Saturday morning, she pointed to an article she wrote for Middle East Eye in 2020 on Yaakov Sharett, the son of one of Israel's founding fathers, who she interviewed in Tel Aviv when he was 92-years-old.
His father Moshe Sharett was Israel's first foreign minister and its second prime minister from 1954-55.
Yaakov Sharrett told Helm: "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 added: "I am not afraid 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."
Sharrett branded Israel a "criminal state" and said: "Seeing the difference between antisemitism and criticism of Israel is crucial. To be honest, I am amazed how in 2019 the world outside accepts Israeli propaganda."
He argued that his father "would have to agree with me somewhat. He remained a Zionist to the end, but I think he realised something was wrong. Sometimes, I say he was too moral to be at peace with what is going on here."
Met Police 'assessing' the post
Helm is also the author of the 2025 book Gaza: The Long Road to Destruction, 1870-2024, a history of Gaza that includes interviews with survivors of the 1948 Nakba.
She posted on X in response to the backlash: "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'."
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police said 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 said: "These views are held by an individual who does not represent the government in any capacity."
Keir Starmer's Labour government proscribed Palestine Action in July 2025, meaning that expressing support for or membership of the direct action group - which aimed to cause property damage to companies manufacturing weapons that would be sold to Israel - is a criminal offence that could lead to a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
The ban has been widely denounced as draconian by human rights organisations.
Thousands of people have been arrested since it came into effect for holding placards expressing support for the group.
Marji Mansfield, a retired tax adviser, said: "I’m a 70-year-old grandmother who was arrested for defying this ban. Counter-terrorism officers have even come to my home over a few seconds of social media footage expressing support for Palestine Action.
"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."
Earlier this week it emerged that bestselling author Sally Rooney is being forced to withdraw her books from sale in the UK because she said after Palestine Action was banned that she would use proceeds from her book sales to support it.
Rooney cancelled a trip to England last September to collect a literary award because she feared she would be arrested.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said last month that Andy Burnham's government is “looking at” whether the ban on Palestine Action was politically sensible, arguing that the government had not intended for mass arrests to take place by implementing the proscription.
He argued: "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."
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