Literary festival axed after high profile authors join mass walkout over dumped Palestinian writer

By Hilary Whiteman, CNN

Brisbane, Australia (CNN) — A much-loved annual literary festival has been canceled after more than 180 writers quit the program to protest the dumping of a Palestinian Australian author, whose invitation was withdrawn due to “cultural sensitivities” following the Bondi Beach terror attack.

Adelaide Writers’ Week has been mired in controversy since late last week when the board announced Randa Abdel-Fattah, a prominent critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, was no longer invited to attend “given her past statements.”

“Whilst we do not suggest in any way that Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah’s or her writings have any connection with the tragedy at Bondi, given her past statements we have formed the view that it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi,” said the statement issued on January 8.

Following the statement, three board members quit, plus its chair and director, and a slew of high-profile participants including British novelist Zadie Smith, American Pulitzer-prize winning author Percival Everett, former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and popular Australian authors Helen Garner and Trent Dalton.

As the backlash grew, the organizers of Adelaide Writers’ Week released a statement Tuesday saying it regretted the “distress” the decision had caused and apologized to Abdel-Fattah for how it “was represented.”

“This is not about identity or dissent but rather a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression in our nation following Australia’s worst terror attack in history,” the statement said.

Abdel-Fattah, a Future Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Macquarie University, with an expertise in Islamophobia and the author of 12 books, rejected the apology in a post on X.

“Once again, the Board citing the ‘national discourse’ for an action that specifically targets me, a Palestinian Australian Muslim woman, is explicitly articulating that I cannot be part of the national discourse, which is insulting and racist in the extreme,” she said.

The furor highlights the tensions in Australia as the government scrambles to unite the country after two gunmen targeted a Jewish gathering at Bondi Beach in Sydney on December 14, killing 15 people in an attack the Jewish community said was a direct result of the government’s failure to stamp out antisemitism.

After the attack, authorities in New South Wales (NSW) drew a link between the mass shooting and pro-Palestinian protests held weekly since Israel launched retaliatory attacks on Hamas in Gaza for its murderous assault on Israelis on October 7, 2023.

The Australian Palestine Advocacy Network slammed any conflation of the protests and the attacks as “irresponsible and misleading,” and said the government’s move to tighten protest laws in its wake “represents a serious and dangerous erosion of democratic rights.”

Abdel-Fattah had been booked to speak at Adelaide Writers’ Week about her new book “Discipline,” which charts the lives of two characters – an academic and a journalist – in Australia during the Gaza war.

Its description reads: “Silence is complicity, and the cost of speaking up is everything… ‘Discipline’ tallies the price we all pay when those with privilege choose to remain silent.”

Abdel-Fattah has previously angered some members of the Jewish community by saying that Zionists have “no claim or right to cultural safety.” In 2024, she was criticized for speaking at an event a pro-Palestinian protest camp at the University of Sydney, where children were heard calling for an intifada.

In a X post at the time, Abdel-Fattah said that 15,000 children had been killed in Gaza, and that children at the protest had been offered the megaphone “to lead chants of their choosing, hoping to give them a sense of agency in a moment of distress.”

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), which represents about 200 Jewish groups, attacked the event, and Abdel-Fattah’s role in it, and called for an inquiry into antisemitism in universities.

The ECAJ didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment over the cancelation of Adelaide Writers’ Week.

In its statement, the Adelaide Festival Board said it was committed to rebuilding trust with the artistic community and audience to enable “open and respectful discussions” at future Adelaide Writers’ Week events.

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