Australian arts festival decision to bar Palestinian author after Bondi attack spurs boycott
A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers, including former NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on 14 December sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by the Islamic State militant group.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi”.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship”, with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive'”.
There is an inevitability of consequences that will erupt as Australia grapple/s with the knee jerk over reach they are sadly performing in the wake of the Bondi massacre.
Right after the NZ Terror attack, NZ didn’t suddenly banish all white male loners with a gun fetish, hell if we had done that, there would be hardly anyone left in the South Island!
Trying to blame all Palestinian’ on the rabid fanaticism of two home grown Islamic State fanatics is as ridiculous as trying to claim legitimate criticism of Israel’s war crimes that technically breach genocide level is ‘anti-semitism’.
Renowned Investigative Journalist Antony Loewenstein makes this case…
After the horrific anti-Semitic terror attack at Bondi Beach in December, Australia witnessed within hours a highly distasteful and co-ordinated attempt to politicise the massacre by many in the mainstream media and pro-Israel lobby.
Apparently it was the fault of the pro-Palestine marches since 7 October 2023 and criticism of the Jewish state’s actions in Gaza and beyond. There was no evidence for this, more a pre-determined vibe that joined dots that didn’t exist.
It was all deeply cynical and must be rejected by sane people everywhere. Anti-Semitism is an ancient disease and will be fought vigorously. Talking about Israeli war crimes and genocide in Palestine is NOT anti-semitic (as much as many want to claim that it is).
(For a reasoned and compelling examination of anti-Semitism, what it is and what it certainly is not, I recently read this fantastic book on the subject, On Anti-Semitism: A Word in History by historian Mark Mazower).
Now is the time for sober and reasoned conversations about Palestine, free speech and the egregious attempts to shrink the public space for honest debate.
What needs to be repeated ad nauseam: Israeli criminality, live-streamed to our phones for 2+ years, plus the Zionist lobby’s insistence on curtailing free speech is leading to way more anti-Semitism in the wider community. That’s the conversation that’s rarely had.
It’s a period where most in the mainstream media have shown themselves to be utterly unwilling, unable or ignorant of the threat of the far-right, the growing collusion between Israel and global fascism and Big Tech oligarchy.
…he’s right.
Australia’s struggle session to prove they aren’t anti-semitic will start a wave of Free Speech Overreach focused on silencing voices critical of Israel’s Occupation, it will have very little to do with countering actual anti-semitism.
Jacinda was right to pull out as other Writers are. Simply platforming a Palestinian writer isn’t ‘culturally insensitive’, de-platforming them is.
Australia’s overreach will continue into free speech and heavy handed policing against Palestinian Rights Protestors which will only generate more friction.
The appalling violence meted out to Jewish Australians at Bondi is an abomination, a disgusting act of terrorism. The answer to that is not strangling the free speech of those criticising Israel’s war crimes, and it certainly isn’t silencing Palestinian writers.
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There is no doubt about it, the festival is cancelled. Humanity is crazy when people are not allowed to share genuine concerns just in case the Zionist lobby get their knickers in a twist over it. This sort of stupid decision to restrict someone because they are Palestinian just makes life even harder for whatever decent Jews are left and encourages the mindless antisemitism that we don’t want to see.
I must admit I was pleasantly surprised that Ardern stood with humanity against zionists. It’s a pity she didn’t earlier.
Earlier when
Rather than rescind their decision, the organisers have cancelled the whole event.
Is this the future?