WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) 鈥� Organizers of Australia鈥檚 largest free literary festival canceled the event Tuesday after more than 180 writers and speakers withdrew over the scrapping of an appearance by an Australian-Palestinian writer and academic.
The uproar began when the board of the Adelaide Festival, which runs Adelaide Writers Week, announced on Jan. 8 that they had disinvited Randa Abdel-Fattah from the event 鈥済iven her previous statements鈥� and citing cultural sensitivities 鈥渁t this unprecedented time so soon after鈥� an at Sydney鈥檚 .
There was no suggestion that Abdel-Fattah or her writings 鈥渉ave any connection with the tragedy,鈥� the board members added.
The board didn鈥檛 cite specific statements by the lawyer, academic and writer of fiction and nonfiction, and Abdel-Fattah decried the move as 鈥渃ensorship鈥� and said the announcement suggested that her 鈥渕ere presence鈥� was culturally insensitive.
The episode unfolded amid a fraught national debate in Australia about following a massacre at a Dec. 14 Hannukah event at which 15 people were shot dead by two gunmen apparently inspired by Islamic State ideology.
Adelaide Writers Week was scheduled to run for six days beginning in late February, as part of an annual culture festival. Some 160,000 people attended the literary event鈥檚 40th iteration in 2025.
It’s not clear why Abdel-Fattah was disinvited
Born in Australia to Palestinian and Egyptian parents, Abdel-Fattah often writes about Islamophobia and had been invited to speak about her novel Discipline, which follows two Muslims, a journalist and a university student, navigating issues of censorship in Sydney. She has been a critic of the Israeli government and an advocate for Palestinians throughout the two-year .
Following the Bondi shooting, the Jewish Community Council for South Australia 鈥� the state where Adelaide is located 鈥� wrote to the festival to lobby for Abdel-Fattah鈥檚 exclusion, the group’s spokesperson Norman Schueler told The Adelaide Advertiser. State Premier Peter Malinauskus compared her appearance to 鈥渁 far-right Zionist going to Writers Week and speaking hateful rhetoric towards Islamic people鈥� following a massacre a at a mosque.
Abdel-Fattah posted to social media on Wednesday that she had sent a legal notice to Malinauskus threatening defamation action. She decried his latest comments as 鈥渁 vicious personal assault on me, a private citizen, by the highest public official in South Australia.鈥�
Australian news outlets also highlighted the writer’s statements on Israel and Zionism.
That included an image she posted after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel showing a parachute displaying the Palestinian flag. She told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that when she posted the picture, she 鈥渉ad no idea about the death toll, I had no idea about what was happening on the ground,鈥� the outlet reported.
鈥淥f course I do not support the killing of civilians,鈥� she told the ABC.
Detractors also criticized Abdel-Fattah for writing that Zionists had 鈥渘o claim or right to cultural safety.鈥� Abdel-Fattah told the ABC that she had 鈥渘ever, ever called for Jews to be unsafe.鈥�
Zadie Smith and Jacinda Ardern withdraw in protest
The removal of Abdel-Fattah prompted writers including British novelist Zadie Smith and former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to withdraw, as well as some sponsors, over the next few days.
The Festival鈥檚 director Louise Adler quit Tuesday, citing her objections to the disinvitation, and a new board was appointed to run the wider Adelaide Festival on Wednesday after all remaining members resigned Tuesday.
Adler, a Jewish Australian, wrote in the Guardian that she could not 鈥渂e party to silencing writers.鈥� She said 70% of the event’s speakers had withdrawn.
Later Tuesday, a statement on the Festival鈥檚 Facebook page said that the Writers Week would not proceed. The statement, which was not attributed to a named individual, offered an apology to Abdel-Fattah for 鈥渉ow the decision was represented.鈥�
Board members wanted to 鈥渞eiterate this is not about identity or dissent but rather a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression in our nation following Australia鈥檚 worst terror attack in history,鈥� the statement said.
Abdel-Fattah rejected the apology in a post on X Tuesday, lambasting the decision to cancel her appearance as 鈥渁 blatant act of anti-Palestinian racism.鈥� She said the board had apologized for how her removal was presented but not for the decision itself.
Australia鈥檚 leaders are debating hate speech
Abdel-Fattah鈥檚 exclusion came amid proposed or enacted changes to laws covering hate speech, protest and guns after the Bondi massacre. Some Jewish organizations said national and state leaders should have considered such measures earlier, after a wave of antisemitic targeted Jewish businesses, schools and synagogues in Sydney and Melbourne during 2024 and early 2025.
New South Wales state, where the shooting happened, passed a law days later that during periods following terrorism declarations. The state is also mulling changes that would criminalize certain chants, including some used at pro-Palestinian rallies.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Tuesday that he would recall the federal parliament in January to vote on his proposed measures to tighten Australia’s gun controls and lower criminal thresholds for prosecuting hate speech. He has also , called a royal commission, into antisemitism in Australia and the Bondi attack specifically.
Albanese said a national day of mourning for those killed would be held on Jan. 22.
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