Jan. 13 (UPI) — Adelaide Writers’ Week, a premier literary event in Australia, was canceled after most of the writers dropped out in protest of the festival’s decision to disinvite a Palestinian-Australian author.
Last week, the Adelaide Festival board announced that Randa Abdel-Fattah, a critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, was disinvited “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,” the Jan. 8 statement said.
On Dec. 14, two men shot and killed 15 people at Bondi Beach in Sydney during a Hanukkah celebration. One of the shooters was killed on the scene. The surviving shooter was arrested and charged. Since then, Australia has been cracking down on anti-Semitism and hate speech.
Following Abdel-Fattah’s ousting, 180 writers and four board members quit the festival, which was scheduled for Feb. 27-March 15. Writers’ Week is part of the broader Adelaide Festival. The three remaining board members, the chair and Writers’ Week director Louise Adler resigned. Adler announced her resignation in Guardian Australia. “I cannot be party to silencing writers,” The Guardian reported she wrote.
Some prominent writers who dropped out were American Pulitzer-prize winning author Percival Everett, British novelist Zadie Smith, former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Australian authors Helen Garner and Trent Dalton.
The Jewish Council of Australia also condemned the cancellation of Abdel-Fattah’s appearance. In a message on Instagram on Jan. 9, it said the council condemned the decision “and the board’s cynical and deplorable reference to the Dec. 14 Bondi massacre. The fact that yet another institution has caved to a relentless campaign waged against Dr. Abdel-Fatah and supporters of Palestinians should be deeply concerning to all who value a plural and open society.”
After growing backlash, the board released a statement apologizing for the distress the decision caused.
“As a Board we took this action out of respect for a community experiencing the pain from a devastating event. Instead, this decision has created more division, and for that we express our sincere apologies,” it said.
“We recognize and deeply regret the distress this decision has caused to our audience, artists and writers, donors, corporate partners, the government and our own staff and people. We also apologize to Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah for how the decision was represented and reiterate 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.
“We acknowledge and are committed to rebuilding trust with our artistic community and audience to enable open and respectful discussions at future Adelaide Writers’ Week events.”
Abdel-Fattah, a fellow in the sociology department at Sydney’s Macquarie University with expertise in Islamophobia, said on X that she rejects the apology.
“It is clear that the board’s regret extends to how the message of my cancellation was conveyed, not the decision itself,” she wrote.
“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.
“The board again reiterates the link to a terror attack I had nothing to do with, nor did any Palestinian. The Bondi shooting does not mean I or anyone else has to stop advocating for an end to the illegal occupation and systematic extermination of my people — this is an obscene and absurd demand.”
Adler said the cancellation of the event was inevitable.
“It was untenable,” she said. “There were 165 sessions and as of yesterday at about 4 p.m., only 12 events had a full complement of writers left. Seventy percent of all the writers had withdrawn. You can’t stitch that back together. All those Australian writers, the internationals, people like Zadie Smith, M. Gessen, Jonathan Coe — all of that hard work, gone.
“I am so sorry that this masterclass in poor governance has landed us in this position,” she added.