How Adelaide Writers’ Week imploded after axing Palestinian author

One of Australia’s biggest cultural festivals has been thrown into turmoil following the decision to cancel the invitation of a well-known Australian-Palestinian writer; This led to a huge backlash and a mass exodus of other writers.

Last week, the Adelaide Festival board of directors voted against a harsh critic of Israel, Dr. He said Randa Abdel-Fattah was removed from the Writers’ Week program due to “sensitivities” after 15 people were shot at a Jewish festival on Bondi Beach in December by gunmen allegedly inspired by the Islamic State militant group.

Although the Adelaide Festival board said they were “in no way suggesting” that Abdel-Fattah “had any connection to the tragedy at Bondi”, they decided it would not be “culturally sensitive” to include him “given his past statements”.

He called the decision to exclude him “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship” and the attempt to link him to the Bondi attack “despicable”.

Dozens of writers who were planned to attend the festival in the coming days also withdrew from the festival. On Tuesday, the list grew to 180; Among them were former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, British author Zadie Smith, US-Russian journalist Masha Gessen, beloved Australian author Helen Garner and British-Australian novelist Kathy Lette. Many people criticized the decision as an attack on freedom of expression.

Four members of the eight-member board, including the chairman, resigned without explaining their reasons. And on Tuesday, the director of Writers’ Week, which invited Abdülfettah, also resigned.

Louise Adler, the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors, said: “I cannot be a party to the silencing of writers” and said Abdel Fattah’s exclusion “undermines freedom of expression and heralds a less free nation.”

Guardian Australia wrote: “Artists have always been a problem for the state and interest groups, but fighting has intensified as a result of the war in Gaza.”

“Writers and writing matter, even when they present ideas that disturb and challenge us.”

This saga has threatened to bring legal action and potentially shut down the entire festival, which includes music, dance, theater and other cultural events and is scheduled to start at the end of February.

Novelist, lawyer and academic Abdel-Fattah had been invited to the festival to discuss his latest novel, Discipline, which he described as “a cautionary tale about the price of silence and cowardice”.

He has previously been criticized for statements arguing that Zionists “have no claim or right to cultural security” and for a post on X in 2024 in which he said “the goal is decolonization and the end of this murderous Zionist colony”, referring to Israel.

Controversy surrounding it includes a photo showing a person parachuting with a Palestinian flag, posted on social media in the hours after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Hamas fighters used paragliders to cross the high-tech security fence into Israel at the start of the offensive, landing in civilian areas where many residents died.

Approximately 1,200 people died in the attack. The incident triggered a major Israeli military offensive on Gaza that has since killed more than 71,419 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Abdel-Fattah confirmed to Australian broadcaster ABC that he shared the image but said he did so before the true extent of the attacks became known.

“At that point I had no idea about the death toll, I had no idea what was happening on the ground… Of course I don’t support the killing of civilians,” she told the ABC.

The academic has been the target of public campaigns before. Opposition politicians and some prominent Australian Jews have called for research funding awarded to Abdel-Fattah to be canceled in 2024. The fund was suspended following a letter from Education Minister Jason Clare, while Abdel-Fattah was investigated over allegations he bent the grant’s rules but was eventually cleared last month.

Norman Schueler of the Jewish Community Council of South Australia said last week his organization had sent a letter to the Adelaide Festival board lobbying for Abdel-Fattah’s dismissal.

“It was a very smart move and not having him there will enhance the integrity of the festival,” he told the Adelaide Advertiser following his dismissal. On reports of increased walkouts, he added: “I think it’s pretty pathetic for everyone who’s dropping out because it means they agree with what Dr. Fattah said about… I mean, Israel shouldn’t exist.”

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskus, whose government is a key supporter of the festival, said he “wholeheartedly” supported Abdel-Fattah’s exclusion and made it “absolutely clear to the board that I did not think it was wise” to invite him.

But Malinauskus denied playing any role in the board’s decision, telling the ABC on Monday; but although he shared his opinion, he said he did not threaten to withdraw funding or fire anyone. He also denied that his stance was influenced by Jewish lobby groups.

Adler said the board’s decision was taken “despite my strongest opposition,” adding: “In my view, the boards, composed of people with little experience in the arts and blind to the moral consequences of abandoning the principle of freedom of expression, have lost their courage under the pressure exerted by politicians calculating their electoral prospects and by relentless, coordinated letter-writing campaigns.”

“The board’s statement addresses community cohesion, an oft-cited concern that should be treated with skepticism,” he said. “You don’t need to be a student of history to know that art in the service of ‘social harmony’ is propaganda.”

After his show was cancelled, Abdel-Fattah said Australian arts and cultural institutions had displayed “utter contempt and inhumanity towards Palestinians”.

“The only Palestinians they will tolerate are the silent and invisible.”

It is not the first time that Abdul Fattah has been at the center of the derailment of a writers’ festival.

Two days before it was due to start in August last year, the Bendigo Writers Festival published a code of conduct requiring speakers to “avoid language or subject matter that could be considered inflammatory, divisive or profane”.

A subsequent strike led by Abdel Fattah and others over concerns that it might prevent free discussion of the Israel-Gaza war led to the cancellation of about a third of the programme.

But Abdel-Fattah has been accused of double standards by some in the media and Malinauskus, who claim he successfully demanded New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman be removed from the Adelaide festival two years ago.

A letter sent to the board by him and nine other academics following the publication of an op-ed in which he compared players from the Middle East to members of the animal kingdom, including caterpillars, wasps and spiders.

“After Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah’s correspondence, they dismissed a pro-Jewish Israeli speaker. Fast forward two years, and I think it is reasonable for the board to apply the same principle,” Malinauskus said.

Abdel Fattah rejected allegations of hypocrisy and told the BBC that Friedman’s article “compared various Arab and Muslim nations and groups to insects and vermin that needed to be destroyed, at a time when the phrase ‘human animals’ was used to justify mass murder in Gaza.”

“In response, I was annulled because my existence and Palestinian identity was deemed ‘culturally insensitive’ and tied to the Bondi atrocity,” the statement continued.

He also denied that Friedman was dismissed on his own orders. In a letter dated February 2024 and cited by Australian media, the board wrote that canceling a writer was an “extremely serious request” and that although Friedman was scheduled to attend, he would no longer be involved due to “last-minute scheduling issues.”

“If it was indeed canceled quietly, this only underscores the racism of canceling me in such a brazen and publicly humiliating way,” Abdel Fattah said.

The BBC contacted Friedman for comment.

Adler says that at least 180 writers said they would no longer appear at the festival, which ruined the festival program. Many said that although they disagreed with Abdel Fattah, they defended his right to freedom of expression.

Peter Greste, an Australian journalist who was imprisoned in Egypt a decade ago for what human rights groups called a sham trial, wrote in an opinion piece for Guardian Australia that his exclusion meant we were “undermining our capacity to have these difficult conversations” and “doing the work” of extremists on their behalf.

Kathy Lette argued in an Instagram post that viewers “should be trusted to make decisions about all speakers, including me.” As authoritarianism rears its disgusting head around the world, we need to defend these havens of free speech.

But former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr, who has been a harsh critic of Israel’s Gaza offensive, said he supported Abdel Fattah’s exclusion. He told Guardian Australia that he believed some of his previous statements were counterproductive to the Palestinian cause and that the decision was not unreasonable given the circumstances following the Bondi attack.

“The Adelaide writers’ festival has supported Palestinian voices being heard, and its record on this issue is indisputable,” Carr said.

He was one of the only festival speakers who openly supported the board.

Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis posted a video in which he ripped up his “precious” and “coveted” invitation to speak to us at X, and claimed that the festival had been “destroyed” by the “Zionist lobby”.

Award-winning First Nations poet Evelyn Araluen said she was “deeply disappointed to witness yet another absurd and unreasonable capitulation to the demands of a genocidal foreign state on the Australian arts sector”.

“Erasing Palestinians from public life in Australia will not prevent antisemitism,” he added.

ABC reporter and presenter Sarah Ferguson, who will host the conversation with Tina Brown and Jacinda Ardern, said the festival “creates a place where debate flourishes, including on our most difficult issues” and that the festival “must be championed in our cultural life”.

Abdel-Fattah’s attorney, Michael Bradley, sent a letter to the board, demanding to know which of his past statements were used to justify last week’s decision.

“The moral indefensibility of the actions of the Adelaide Festival board has been amply demonstrated by the backlash it has provoked. It has also trampled on Randa’s human rights and the board will have to be held accountable for this,” Bradley told the BBC on Monday, adding that Abdel-Fattah had not yet decided whether to take any legal action.

Abdel-Fattah asked for an apology and reinstatement last week, but told the ABC on Monday he believed the incident had “gone beyond the point of no return”.

Following the “significant community response” to the board’s decision, festival general manager Julian Hobbe said it was “a complex and unprecedented time and will share further updates as soon as possible”.