Predictable Australian ‘antisemitism’ overreach curses writers festival: Jacinda right to pull out
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Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.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
If she was still our PM we would have been more out spoken, as a nation of caring people ,against the genocide that is still raging in Gazza.We may well have closed the embassy a couple of years ago .
That’s not even remotely likely. The Ardern government was no help to Palestinians. Quite the opposite. Ardern and Mahuta were completely spineless when it came to Israel.
She didn’t pull out until 100 other authors had already done so. Typical spineless populism from Ardern.
Rather than rescind their decision, the organisers have cancelled the whole event.
Is this the future?
It’s the reality of total zionist control of the Albanese regime and state Labor parties.
Zionist or Murdoch control? It seems that they are linked but if the media was not supporting the Zionist myths they would not have the influence they have now.
As it turns out enough board members resigned so they were unable to have a quorum to make decisions anyway. Your detailed comment below provides more information however it’s unfair to criticize all the board members for the wrong initial decision to exclude the Palestinian writer.
The organisers of the Adelaide Writers’ Week have refused to reinstate Randa Abdel-Fattah and have canceled the whole event instead
From Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC:
Palestinian author seeks to be reinstated to Adelaide Writers’ Week
By Eva Blandis
Topic:Carnivals and Festivals
Fri 9 Jan
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-09/sa-palestinian-author-calls-for-apology-over-writers-week-axing/106212878
….Randa Abdel-Fattah told ABC Radio National on Friday that she would like an apology and for her invitation to be reinstated….
…. SA Premier Peter Malinauskas has backed the board’s decision, on Friday morning telling ABC Radio Adelaide that Abdel-Fattah has “advocated in writing explicitly against the cultural safety of those who believe in Zionism”…..
……Mr Malinauskas told ABC Radio Adelaide that he “thought about this a lot” before informing the board of his position.
He said Abdel-Fattah “advocated in writing explicitly against the cultural safety of those who believe in Zionism”.
“I think in the context of the single worst race-based terrorist attack that we’ve seen in the history of our federation, that matters.”
Mr Malinauskas agreed that Writers’ Week is “all about the contest of idea” and that “controversial opinions” should be welcomed.
But he questioned Abdel-Fattah’s appearance in the wake of the Bondi terrorist attack…..
….Abdel-Fattah said she learned of her axing via email and that previously she had not heard “anything” from the festival about comments she had made.
“I would like an apology, I would like a redemption in terms of the retraction of that statement, the reinstatement of my invitation and steps by the board to actually hold itself accountable to community for what it has done here,” she said…..
….South Australian author Hannah Kent has also withdrawn from the festival, posting a statement to Instagram in which she said she was “appalled” by the decision.
“It is a gross act of discrimination and censorship I can in no way agree with, and I will … therefore be withdrawing from this year’s Adelaide Writers’ Week unless Dr Abdel-Fattah’s place in the program is reinstated,” she wrote….
….The ABC has contacted the Adelaide Festival for comment.
To protect the cultural safety of those who believe in Zionism, Zionist politicians in Australia close down whole events to silence Palestinian writers and journalists.
To protect the cultural safety of those who believe in Zionism, Zionist politicians in Israel, order writers to be killed to silence them.
If I must die,
You must live
To tell my tale
To sell my things
To buy some cloth
and some strings,
Make it white with a long tail
So that a child, somewhere in Gaza
While looking heaven in the eye
—Awaiting his dad who left in a blaze
And bid no farewell
Not even to his flesh
Not even to himself—
Sees my kite, the kite you made,
Flying up above
And thinks for a moment an angel is there
Bringing back love
If I must die
Let it bring hope
Shortly after he wrote this poem, Palestinian writer and professor of literature Refaat Alareer, who had been a fierce critic of Israel and had documented many accounts of Israeli atrocities, was assassinated in a targetted Israeli airstrike, that also killed his brother, his brother’s son, his sister and her three children.
A targeted air strike ordered by Bari Weiss, now the head of CBS News.
The genocide in Gazza continues at a faster rate but goes un noticed under the smoke screen put up by TRUMP the enabeler .He and Bibi have hatched this latest plan to hasten the deaths of the remaining people in Gazza so the Jews can move in and take the land and breed more haters .Also they continue to rape the west bank which the so called CARING JEWS who live else where in the world turn a blind eye to .Jews living around the world would earn huge respect if they collectively stood up and condemned the behaviour of their so called mother land ,which would not exist if it were not for the so called rehoming after WW2 WHEN THE COLONIZATION BEGAN .How many of you have even been to Israel?.Why now do you expect an armed guard at every turn of your life because of the hate your mother land is foisting on the world and being enabled by the orange hitler and his monkey boy Bibi
Ardern only pulled out when around 100 other authors had already done so. She is motivated by populism rather than principle. She was of no use to Palestinians when she was PM.