University of Queensland Press cancels children’s book over illustrator’s post on ‘Zionist framing’ of Bondi attack | Bondi beach terror attack

An Australian publishing house has canceled the publication of an award-winning Indigenous poet’s children’s book over comments the book illustrator made about victims of the Bondi Beach terror attack, calling them “wealthy beneficiaries of imperialism.”

University of Queensland On Wednesday, the publisher said Bila, written by Jazz Money and illustrated by Matt Chun, would not continue printing A River Cycle and was considering “recycling options” for already printed copies.

The university said the decision stemmed from comments Chun made in an online article that he “did not comply with the university’s policies and values, including the espoused definition of antisemitism.”

In response to the decision, which was first reported on independent news website Lamestream, several writers said they would terminate their contracts or refuse to work with the Brisbane publisher in the future, but the Queensland Board of Jewish Representatives welcomed the move, saying the university had taken a stand against “hate, insults and grotesque propaganda”.

These writers include Goorie and Koori poet Evelyn Araluen, well-known Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah and award-winning First Nations author Melissa Lucashenko, who called the move a “terrible decision”.

In January, the University of Queensland Press halted publication of the book, described as a “lyrical journey through the country” that tells the story of a river that takes human form, while taking Chun’s comments into account.

Chun was published a Substack post On 1 January, he gave a speech about the Bondi beach attack titled “We do not mourn fascists”, deploring what he called “liberal capitulation” to the “Zionist framework” that “violence affecting the wealthy beneficiaries and perpetrators of imperialism deserves special attention, elaborate commemorations, constant media coverage and international headlines”.

New South Wales police confirmed on Thursday that its Engagement and Hate Crime Unit was investigating Chun’s post.

“Whiteness, Judaism, and the backdrop of Bondi Beach were enough to endow each murdered person with presumed innocence and virtue,” Chun wrote. “The victimization of white, Jewish settlers requires extraordinary, intense suffering.

“‘We don’t mourn fascists’ is a popular refrain of the Australian left. How quickly this slogan is discarded when the colonial Bondi paradise is broken.”

In the terrorist attack on December 14, 15 people, including a 10-year-old child, died.

Jason Steinberg, president of the Queensland Board of Jewish Representatives, praised the UQP’s move.

“Publishing a book, no matter what the subject is, no matter who the illustrator is, [expresses views such as Chun’s] “It is unacceptable,” he said.

“It is precisely such sentiments expressed by such individuals that have allowed hatred and lies to thrive in Australia. This creates a putrid environment for the worst terrorist attack to take place off Australian shores, specifically targeting Australian Jews.”

Chun told Guardian Australia, which he called a “liberal-imperialist” publication in his post, that he stood by “every word” of the article, which was “thoroughly considered and written in close consultation with Jewish comrades.”

“He will stand the test of history,” he wrote in an email. “The UQP has capitulated to Zionist lobbying and constant pressure from pro-Israel media. We should be both disgusted and unsurprised by this.”

in january Australian He called Chun’s comments “a tirade against Jews and Zionists.”

Bookstore Dymocks pulled Chun’s other works from its shelves in January.

Money said he believed thousands of copies of Bila, A River Cycle were printed. he said on wednesday It was stated that the decision would harm him financially and reputationally, but he was most concerned about the “really troubling precedent it was setting”.

“It sucks for me to have my book canceled,” he said. “But for me what is most pressing about this whole story is the precedent it sets: even a children’s book about a river written by an Aboriginal person on Aboriginal land can be destroyed by a right-wing media campaign.”

A UQ spokesman denied that the university had “pulped” Money’s book, saying: “The books remained in storage while the university considered recycling options.”

“The University regrets the impact of this matter on Jazz Money,” the spokesperson said. “We have great respect for Jazz and his work and would welcome the opportunity to work with Jazz again in the future.”

But Money said he no longer trusted the publisher he had worked with since 2020, when he won the David Unaipon award for an emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writer.

The poet said that the publisher’s reason for canceling the book they had been working on for about five years was “insincere” and that Bila “has nothing to do with antisemitism, Israel or Palestine.”

“The book is about a river,” he said. “It’s such a gentle and lovely, beautiful book. It wasn’t written by Matt. It was written by me.”

Lucashenko, author of the multi-award-winning novel Edenglassie, said he was taking legal advice on his book Blood on the Tiles, which will be published by UQP next year.

“This is not just silencing an indigenous writer, it’s bowing to the Murdoch press,” said the First Nations author, who has worked with the publishing house for 30 years. “And that makes me want to place an ancestral curse on most of them.”

Araluen said he wrote to UQP on Wednesday, saying his “disgraceful and disgusting decision to debunk the work of an Aboriginal storyteller without due process, communication, respect or consideration” had caused him to immediately terminate his relationship with the publisher.

He told Guardian Australia this would involve canceling a contract for an upcoming non-fiction book and repaying a $2,500 advance.

“The pulping of these books is culturally violent, wasteful and disrespectful, and has absolutely demonstrated that the University of Queensland Press does not view our authors and our stories as people or living beings to be held accountable for, but in fact sees us as mere commodities,” he said.

Abdel-Fattah said the UQP “chose to engage in a coordinated campaign of outrage designed to intimidate, delegitimize and alienate dissidents” and as a result, Discipline would be his “first and last book with them”.

Other authors who ended their relationships with the publisher on Wednesday included Natalia Figueroa Barroso and Sara M Saleh.