cross-posted from: https://quokk.au/c/australia/p/570122/palestinian-australian-author-dropped-from-writers-festival-after-bondi
Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah has been dropped from the Adelaide Writers’ Week line-up by the Adelaide Festival Board, citing the festival’s role in “promoting community cohesion”.
How is it promoting community cohesion for barring someone based on race?
Seems like open-and-shut racial discrimination to me.
The statement from the Adelaide Festival board says that it’s because of “past statements” by Abdel-Fattah, though they don’t cite anything or even mention the nature of these statements. So it’s not explicitly because Abdel-Fattah’s ethnicity.
they don’t need to, it was pretty loud news that cost her a massive grant.
tl;dr: [Zionists] “have no claim or right to cultural safety”
She was cleared of wrongdoing and the suspension of the grant was lifted, btw:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/23/pro-palestine-academic-randa-abdel-fattah-cleared-of-wrongdoing-after-investigation-into-research-grant-ntwnfb
Cheers. Can still understand why they bumped her quietly in the climate though. Not saying I agree, but I can see the politics behind it.
Well they haven’t been able to do it “quietly”. They’ve lost at least 24 speakers so far, and a sponsor: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/jan/09/adelaide-festival-boycott-pro-palestine-academic-randa-abdel-fattah-ntwnfb
EDIT: That article has since been updated to reflect that 45 participants have now withdrawn.