Writers’ Festival Apologises to Anti-Israel Author as She Launches Lawsuit Against SA Premier

The board of the Adelaide Writers’ Week literary festival has apologised to Randa Abdel-Fattah for excluding her from this year’s event and has promised her a spot at its 2027 edition.

The ardent Israel-critic was dumped on Jan. 8 after the former board cited “cultural sensitivity” after the Bondi terror attack as the reason it withdrew her invitation.

The writer has previously called for an “end to Israel” and posted an image of a parachutist with a Palestinian flag right after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks that claimed 1,200 Israeli lives.

Abdel-Fattah responded to the festival issue by threatening to sue both the festival and South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, who publicly supported her exclusion.

The decision prompted the resignation of director Louise Adler and several board members and a mass boycott of over 100 writers, including former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, British novelist Zadie Smith, author Trent Dalton, commentator Jane Caro and former Wallaby turned columnist Peter FitzSimons.

The event was subsequently cancelled.

On Jan. 15, the board tried a second time to make amends with Abdel-Fattah, led by immediate past chair of the Adelaide Festival, Judy Potter.

It first approached Abdel-Fattah on Jan. 13.

“We have reversed the decision and will reinstate Dr Abdel-Fattah’s invitation to speak at the next Adelaide Writers’ Week in 2027,” Potter said in the statement.

“We apologise to [her] unreservedly for the harm the Adelaide Festival Corporation has caused her. Intellectual and artistic freedom is a powerful human right. Our goal is to uphold it, and in this instance, Adelaide Festival Corporation fell well short.”

In the earlier apology, the board referred to “a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression.”

Apology Accepted, But Attendance Still Uncertain

The author said she would consider accepting the invitation to next year’s festival and would attend “in a heartbeat” if Adler were to return and run the event.

“I accept this apology as acknowledgement of our right to speak publicly and truthfully about the atrocities that have been committed against the Palestinian people,” she said in video published to social media.

“I accept this apology as a vindication of our collective solidarity and mobilisation against anti-Palestinian racism, bullying and censorship [and] of the harm inflicted on our community,” she said.

The Palestinian-Australian academic and novelist had faced scrutiny over social media posts critical of Israel, and from former Adelaide Festival board member Tony Berg.

Berg, who resigned late last year, accused Abdel-Fattah of “hypocrisy in defending free speech”  claiming she demanded the board retract an invitation to New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman to attend the 2024 festival because he wrote a column comparing the Middle East conflict to the animal kingdom.

The withdrawal of her invitation to this year’s event was supported by Premier Malinauskas, who remains steadfast in his position.

“Can you imagine if a far-right Zionist walked into a Sydney mosque and murdered 15 people?” the premier said.

“Can you imagine that as premier of this state, I would actively support a far-right Zionist going to writers’ week and speaking hateful rhetoric towards Islamic people? Of course I wouldn’t.”

Abdel-Fattah confirmed her lawyers have issued a formal defamation notice to the premier, who told journalists he was prevented by law from directing the board, but had made it clear that the state government did not support her inclusion in the programme.

At a press conference on Wednesday (Jan. 14), Malinauskas said he was not aware that a defamation notice had been received.

AAP contributed to this story.