Explore the latest developments concerning Palestinian author calls.
Randa Abdel-Fattah told ABC Radio National on Friday that she would like an apology and for her invitation to be reinstated. (Bendigo Writers Festival)
A Palestinian Australian author has been axed from Adelaide Writers' Week after its board said her appearance would "not be culturally sensitive" in the wake of the Bondi terrorist attack.
Several authors, including Jane Caro, Hannah Kent and Peter Fitzsimons, have withdrawn from the festival citing concerns about freedom of speech.
Adelaide Writers' Week is scheduled to take place from February 28 to March 5.
Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah has asked for an apology and "accountability" after she was axed from Adelaide Writers' Week, as dozens of authors cancel their appearances at the event.
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Star British author Zadie Smith has joined dozens of writers who have pulled out of this year’s Adelaide Writers’ Week following the Adelaide Festival board’s decision to remove Palestinian-Australian writer Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from the line-up.
Among the writers resigning from the event in protest are Pulitzer Prize-winning American Percival Everett, former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, and American journalist Masha Gessen.
Locally, Michelle de Kretser, Helen Garner, Melissa Lucashenko, Hannah Kent, Evelyn Araluen, Jane Caro and Peter Greste have withdrawn, as have Peter FitzSimons and Kate Halfpenny, writers for this masthead. Richard Flanagan, while not on the line-up, has expressed support for those who have boycotted.
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Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne
Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
University of Melbourne provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.
The decision by the Adelaide Festival Board to exclude Palestinian Australian author and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah from Adelaide Writers’ Week on the grounds of “cultural sensitivity” is based on a dangerously broad and vague criterion for suppressing free speech.
The board appears to have overruled Writer’s Week director Louise Adler to remove Abdel-Fattah from the program, arguing it would not be culturally sensitive to include her so soon after the Bondi terror attacks, due to her “past statements”.
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