Director of Australian writers festival quits amid row over canceled Palestinian author

SYDNEY, Australia — The director of a leading Australian writers’ festival resigned in protest Tuesday after the board canceled an appearance by a Palestinian-Australian author.

Scores of participants, including former New Zealand orime minister Jacinda Ardern, have boycotted the Adelaide Festival over a decision to exclude Randa Abdel-Fattah.

Writers’ Week director Louise Adler joined the exodus, blaming the “extreme and repressive efforts of pro-Israel lobbyists.”

“The arts have allegedly become ‘unsafe’ and artists are a danger to the community’s psycho-social wellbeing,” she writes in an open letter published by The Guardian newspaper.

“But let’s be clear, the routine invocation of ‘safety’ is code for ‘I don’t want to hear your opinion.’

“In this instance, it appears to apply only to a Palestinian invitee.”

Australia’s premier annual cultural event, which lures artists from around the world, unleashed the storm last week when it told Abdel-Fattah it did not “wish to proceed” with her appearance.

Adler said the board had made this decision despite her “strongest opposition.”

Abdel-Fattah has faced criticism over some statements, including her apparent backing for the October 7, 2023, massacre.

In interviews, she refused to acknowledge the murder of Israelis, and on October 8, 2023, she changed her Facebook profile picture to a Hamas terrorist hanggliding, depicting one of the methods the terror group used to infiltrate Israel and carry out the brutal onslaught.

She wrote a post on X in October 2024 saying: “The goal is decolonisation and the end of this murderous Zionist colony.”

The festival board said it was “shocked and saddened” by the December 14 mass terror shooting at a Jewish festival on Bondi Beach, which killed 15 people, and its decision to exclude Abdel-Fattah was not taken lightly.

But the shunned author and academic said it was a “blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism.”

It was a “despicable attempt to associate me with the Bondi massacre,” she said in a statement.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.