Earlier this month, the Adelaide Writers’ Festival was cancelled after 180 participants pulled out, and the subsequent resignation of the board, over the decision to remove author and activist Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from the Writers’ Week programme. Organisers cited “cultural sensitivity” in the wake of the Bondi terror attack, as the reason for the removal.
On January 8th, the Adelaide Festival Board rescinded their invitation to Abdel-Fattah to speak at the event. She was originally set to promote her upcoming book Discipline, which was written about the censorship of Palestinians in academia and media. Over the following week, 180 writers and speakers withdrew from the event in solidarity.
Puberty Blues author Kathy Lette released a statement outlining that the decision “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message” and will “lead to the erasure of Palestinian writers, and Palestinians more broadly, from Australian public life,”
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, set to speak at one of the festival’s headline events, also quit.
Out of the 165 events originally in the programme, only 12 remained after the mass boycott.
Over half of the board members have since stepped down, embracing a transition to a new Board; Director Louise Adler resigned saying she “cannot be party to silencing writers,”
Adler wrote in an open letter published to The Guardian that “pro-Israel lobbyists have had a chilling effect on free speech,” and that pressure from those lobbyists is what led to Abdel-Fattah’s disinvitation, despite Adler’s strong opposition.
Adler issued a warning to others in the arts sector: “they are coming for you.”
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas supported the boards original decision. He made several statements pointing to anti-Zionist posts made by Abdel-Fattah and her signature to a petition for the removal of a pro-Israeli, Jewish writer in 2024. He also directly linked her to the Bondi Beach atrocity that occurred in December.
Abdel-Fattah says she has taken the first step in defamation proceedings against the Premier for the “vicious personal assault.”
Australia’s largest literary festival, originally scheduled to begin on February 28th, was altogether cancelled on January 13th. The new Chair of the Adelaide festival board Judy Potter confirmed there was no possibility of the 2026 Writers’ Week going ahead.
On January 15th, the new Festival Board issued a public apology for the “deeply regrettable outcome,” and reversed the decision entirely. They have invited Abdel-Fattah back for the return of the festival in 2027.
The ousted writer and academic has accepted the apology, posting to her Instagram that it was a vindication “of our collective solidarity and mobilisation against anti-Palestinian racism, bullying and censorship.”
