Extract from ABC News
Randa Abdel-Fattah's scheduled appearance at this year's Adelaide Writers' Week was cancelled. (Bendigo Writers Festival)
In short:
The decision to cancel Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah from the upcoming Adelaide Writers' Week has prompted ongoing controversy, with writers withdrawing from the event in protest as the SA premier backs the Adelaide Festival board's decision.
Ex-Adelaide Writers' Week director Jo Dyer has questioned the viability of the event.
Abdel-Fattah's lawyer has written to the festival's chair asking for clarification about the reasons for her exclusion.
The Adelaide Festival chair and several board members have resigned amid controversy over the cancellation of Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah from this year's Adelaide Writers' Week.
Late on Sunday, the ABC exclusively confirmed that the board's chair, Tracey Whiting, had stepped down.
It has also been confirmed Daniela Ritorto, Donny Walford and Nicholas Linke have stepped down from their roles.
Early on Sunday, South Australia's Premier Peter Malinauskas — who has "wholeheartedly" backed the board's position — elaborated on his involvement in the matter, saying he offered his "clear and plain" opinion to the board but did not instruct it to change the Writers' Week schedule.
Dozens of authors have withdrawn from the event in support of Abdel-Fattah, who has previously faced criticism for comments she has made about Israel.
Abdel-Fattah's planned appearance at this year's Writers' Week event was cancelled after the board said it would "not be culturally sensitive to continue to program [Abdel-Fattah] at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi" — a reference to the December terrorist attack in which 15 people were killed.
Ex-Adelaide Writers' Week director Jo Dyer is among 11 former Adelaide Festival leaders who have urged her reinstatement, and said the resignations of three of its members left the board's current position in limbo.
"I don't think they have a legally constituted board at the moment. Under the [Adelaide Festival] corporation's act, the board is required to have at least two women on it, two men on it — it doesn't have that at the moment. The whole thing now is a complete debacle," Ms Dyer said.
"The decision that the board took last week to dis-invite Dr Abdel-Fattah has absolutely trashed the international standing of the event, and we can see that from the fact that more than 90 per cent of the invited guests to Writers' Week have withdrawn from the event in protest."
Ms Dyer earlier said literary festivals were designed "to allow civilised debate to take place on a range of different issues".
"It is true that by law the premier cannot direct the board to do anything but if you bring strong sustained pressure over a period of time and you are the organisation's chief funder then obviously that is pressure which is difficult to ignore," she said.
Jo Dyer says the event's international reputation has been "trashed". (ABC News: Brant Cumming)
On Sunday, Mr Malinauskas said he did not have the power to direct the board — but said it did ask for his opinion before making its decision to revoke its invitation to Abdel-Fattah.
"My opinion was sought and it was offered, and I was more than happy to offer my opinion and make it clear and strongly known," he said.
"I made clear to the board every single step of the way that I have a view but I also made clear to the board that I wouldn't be instructing them or intervening on them or threatening cancelling funding or anything like that. I've made that clear and plain."
Abdel-Fattah's criticisms of Israel include a 2024 post on social media platform X, in which she stated: "The goal is decolonisation and the end of this murderous Zionist colony".
On Friday, Jewish Community Council of South Australia public and government liaison Norman Schueler said the council had sent a letter to the board requesting the removal of Abdel-Fattah from the Writers' Week program.
"The board [has] completely, appropriately dis-invited her," Mr Schueler said.
"Personally, I'm very, very surprised it appears a large cohort of people have decided to support her."
Dozens of authors have withdrawn from the 2026 event in protest. (Supplied: Adelaide Festival)
Mr Malinauskas said while he had spoken to Mr Schueler about the matter, he did so only after he had made his "position clear", adding that he "did not receive contact from the Jewish community" prior to his communication with the board.
"What I can definitively tell you, thinking through the chronology, is I made my view to the board known about this before I received any representations from the Jewish community," he said.
"In this instance the board made a judgement that someone crossed a line when they advocated against the cultural safety of others, because that runs contrary to the whole idea of the event."
Lawyer writes to festival chair
Mr Malinauskas — who in 2023 said he strongly considered pulling state government funding from Writers' Week amid controversy involving another Palestinian author, but decided against such a move because it would have been a step "down a path to Putin's Russia" — said the purpose of Writers' Week was to allow exchanges of ideas.
"There have always been pro-Palestinian authors and advocates at Adelaide Writers' Week. This one is no different," he said.
Mr Malinauskas said that Abdel-Fattah herself had previously advocated for the exclusion of a pro-Israeli author at Writers' Week.
"In the beginning of 2024, Louise Adler, the director of Writers' Week and the board received correspondence from Dr Abdel-Fattah herself calling on the cancellation of a pro-Israeli speaker," Mr Malinauskas said.
Peter Malinauskas "wholeheartedly" backed the board's position. (ABC News: Guido Salazar)
Mr Malinauskas said there was an indication that the author's non-attendance was ultimately because of "a scheduling issue", but he suggested that was beside the point.
"Call it what you like, after the correspondence from Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, they removed a pro-Jewish Israeli speaker. Fast forward two years and I think it's reasonable for the board to apply the same principle," he said.
Those remarks appear to have been in reference to Jewish-American author Thomas Friedman, who did not take part in the 2024 event.
Abdel-Fattah confirmed she was among several academics who had signed a letter asking for his invitation to be rescinded, but said she rejected as "insulting" comparisons "between the circumstances surrounding my cancellation and the principled request" she had made two years ago.
Abdel-Fattah said the basis of her objection to Friedman's attendance in 2024 was the language used about the Middle East in a New York Times article entitled Understanding the Middle East Through the Animal Kingdom.
"We were concerned about the impact of Mr Friedman's views on socially and historically marginalised people who have been dehumanised and discriminated against," she said.
"The festival in fact reiterated its support for 'artistic freedom' in response to our request and Mr Friedman was not cancelled."
Abdel-Fattah provided a letter from the Adelaide Festival Corporation dated February 2024 which stated that cancelling a writer was an "extremely serious request", and that while Friedman had been programmed to contribute to that year's event he would no longer be participating "due to last-minute scheduling issues".
Adelaide Writers' Week is held each year. (Supplied: Adelaide Festival)
In the wake of her own cancellation, Abdel-Fattah was critical of the festival board for what she described as its "selective respect for freedom of ideas and freedom of speech" and said she had been "heartened by the support" she had received from other writers.
"But this isn't just about support for me. It is about writers rejecting the correlation between me, as a writer of Palestinian background, and the Bondi atrocity which is insinuated in the Adelaide Festival board's statement," she said.
"It's also about writers standing up to support what writers festivals and all cultural festivals should be about — probing what may be considered difficult topics or questions, being challenged and sitting with difference."
A lawyer for Abdel-Fattah has now written to the Adelaide Festival chair asking it to clarify its statement regarding her exclusion.
"It appears, from this statement, that the board's decision to exclude Dr Abdel-Fattah was made because of 'past statements' made by her," the letter stated.
"As a matter of basic procedural fairness to Dr Abdel-Fattah, please identify with specificity each of the 'past statements' made by her on which the board relied in making its decision."
The Adelaide Festival has been contacted for comment.
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