{"id":13938,"date":"2026-01-16T18:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/writers-week-canceled-after-speakers-withdraw-over-palestinians-exclusion\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:32:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:32:27","slug":"writers-week-canceled-after-speakers-withdraw-over-palestinians-exclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/writers-week-canceled-after-speakers-withdraw-over-palestinians-exclusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Writers Week canceled after speakers withdraw over Palestinian\u2019s exclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"New
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gestures as she gives her victory speech to Labour Party members at an event in Auckland, New Zealand, Oct. 17, 2020. (The Associated Press)<\/span>Mark Baker<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

WELLINGTON, New Zealand \u2013 Organizers of Australia\u2019s largest free literary festival canceled the event Tuesday after 180 writers withdrew following the removal of an Australian-Palestinian writer and academic.<\/p>\n

The uproar began when the board of the Adelaide Festival, which runs Adelaide Writers Week, announced Jan. 8 that it had disinvited Randa Abdel-Fattah from the event \u201cgiven her previous statements\u201d and citing cultural sensitivities \u201cat this unprecedented time so soon after\u201d an antisemitic mass shooting at Sydney\u2019s Bondi Beach.<\/p>\n

There was no suggestion that Abdel-Fattah or her writings \u201chave any connection with the tragedy,\u201d the board members added.<\/p>\n

The board did not cite specific statements by the lawyer, academic and writer of fiction and nonfiction. Abdel-Fattah decried the move as \u201ccensorship\u201d and said the announcement suggested that her \u201cmere presence\u201d was culturally insensitive.<\/p>\n

The episode unfolded amid a fraught national debate in Australia about limits on speech following a massacre at a Dec. 14 Hannukah event where two gunmen, apparently inspired by Islamic State ideology, killed 15 people.<\/p>\n

Adelaide Writers Week was scheduled to run for six days beginning in late February as part of an annual culture festival. About 160,000 people attended the event\u2019s 40th edition in 2025.<\/p>\n

Born in Australia to Palestinian and Egyptian parents, Abdel-Fattah often writes about Islamophobia and had been invited to speak about her novel Discipline, which follows two Muslims, a journalist and a university student, navigating issues of censorship in Sydney. She has been a critic of the Israeli government and an advocate for Palestinians throughout the two-year war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Following the Bondi shooting, the Jewish Community Council for South Australia \u2014 the state where Adelaide is located \u2014 wrote to the festival to lobby for Abdel-Fattah\u2019s exclusion, the group\u2019s spokesperson Norman Schueler told The Adelaide Advertiser. State Premier Peter Malinauskus compared her appearance to \u201ca far-right Zionist going to Writers Week and speaking hateful rhetoric towards Islamic people\u201d following a massacre at a mosque.<\/p>\n

Abdel-Fattah posted to social media Wednesday that she had sent a legal notice to Malinauskus threatening defamation action. She decried his latest comments as \u201ca vicious personal assault on me, a private citizen, by the highest public official in South Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australian news outlets also highlighted the writer\u2019s statements on Israel and Zionism.<\/p>\n

That included an image she posted after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel showing a parachute displaying the Palestinian flag. She told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that when she posted the picture, she \u201chad no idea about the death toll, I had no idea about what was happening on the ground,\u201d the outlet reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I do not support the killing of civilians,\u201d she told the ABC.<\/p>\n

Detractors also criticized Abdel-Fattah for writing that Zionists had \u201cno claim or right to cultural safety.\u201d Abdel-Fattah told the ABC that she had \u201cnever, ever called for Jews to be unsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zadie Smith and Jacinda Ardern withdraw in protest<\/p>\n

The removal of Abdel-Fattah prompted writers including British novelist Zadie Smith and former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to withdraw, as well as some sponsors, over the next few days.<\/p>\n

The festival\u2019s director Louise Adler quit Tuesday, citing her objections to the disinvitation, and a new board was appointed to run the wider Adelaide Festival on Wednesday after all remaining members resigned Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Adler, a Jewish Australian, wrote in The Guardian that she could not \u201cbe party to silencing writers.\u201d She said 70% of the event\u2019s speakers had withdrawn.<\/p>\n

Later Tuesday, a statement on the festival\u2019s Facebook page said that Writers Week would not proceed. The statement, which was not attributed to a named individual, offered an apology to Abdel-Fattah for \u201chow the decision was represented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Board members wanted to \u201creiterate 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\u2019s worst terror attack in history,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Abdel-Fattah rejected the apology in a post on X Tuesday, lambasting the decision to cancel her appearance as \u201ca blatant act of anti-Palestinian racism.\u201d She said the board had apologized for how her removal was presented but not for the decision itself.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s leaders are debating hate speech<\/p>\n

Abdel-Fattah\u2019s exclusion came amid proposed or enacted changes to laws covering hate speech, protest and guns after the Bondi massacre. Some Jewish organizations said national and state leaders should have considered such measures earlier, after a wave of antisemitic arson and vandalism attacks targeted Jewish businesses, schools and synagogues in Sydney and Melbourne during 2024 and early 2025.<\/p>\n

New South Wales state, where the shooting happened, passed a law days later that bans protest gatherings during periods following terrorism declarations. The state is also mulling changes that would criminalize certain chants, including some used at pro-Palestinian rallies.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Tuesday that he would recall the federal parliament in January to vote on his proposed measures to tighten Australia\u2019s gun controls and lower criminal thresholds for prosecuting hate speech. He has also announced a major national inquiry, called a royal commission, into antisemitism in Australia and the Bondi attack specifically.<\/p>\n

Albanese said a national day of mourning for those killed would be held Jan. 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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