Australian writers’ festival cancelled after Palestinian author axed

A top writers’ festival in Australia has been called off amid controversy over the cancellation of a scheduled appearance by a prominent Australian-Palestinian activist and author.

The organisers of Adelaide Writers’ Week said on Tuesday that the event could no longer go ahead following a wave of speaker withdrawals and board resignations prompted by the removal of Randa Abdel-Fattah from the lineup.

In a statement, the festival’s board said while it had disinvited Abdel-Fattah out of respect for the Jewish community in the wake of the Bondi Beach mass shooting, the decision had created “more division”.

“We recognise and deeply regret the distress this decision has caused to our audience, artists and writers, donors, corporate partners, the government and our own staff and people,” the board said.

“We also apologise to Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah for how the decision was represented and reiterate 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’s worst terror attack in history.”

The announcement came hours after Louise Adler, the director of the event, said in an op-ed that Abdel-Fattah had been disinvited by the festival’s board despite her “strongest opposition”.

Writing in The Guardian, Adler called Abdel-Fattah’s removal from the festival lineup a blow to free expression and a “harbinger of a less free nation”.

“Now religious leaders are to be policed, universities monitored, the public broadcaster scrutinised and the arts starved,” Adler wrote.

“Are you or have you ever been a critic of Israel? Joe McCarthy would be cheering on the inheritors of his tactics,” she added, citing a figure in Cold War history commonly associated with censorship.

The festival’s board announced last week that it had decided to disinvite Abdel-Fattah, a well-known Palestinian advocate and vocal critic of Israel, after determining that her appearance would not be “culturally sensitive” in the wake of the December 14 mass shooting at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach.

Fifteen people were killed in the attack, which targeted a beachside Hanukkah celebration. Authorities have said the two gunmen were inspired by ISIL (ISIS).

Abdel-Fattah had called her removal “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism” and a “despicable attempt to associate me with the Bondi massacre”.

On Monday, New Zealand’s former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that she would not go ahead with her scheduled appearance at the festival, adding her name to a boycott that swelled to some 180 writers, including former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and award-winning novelist Zadie Smith.

Peter Malinauskas, the premier of the state of South Australia, as well as several federal politicians and a number of Jewish groups, had backed the revocation of Abdel-Fattah’s invitation.

Abdel-Fattah’s critics pointed to statements critical of Israel to argue that her views were beyond the pale, including that “the goal is decolonisation and the end of this murderous Zionist colony”, and that Zionists “have no claim or right to cultural safety”.

In her op-ed on Tuesday, Adler accused pro-Israel lobbyists of using “increasingly extreme and repressive” tactics, resulting in a chilling effect on speech in Australia.

“The new mantra ‘Bondi changed everything’ has offered this lobby, its stenographers in the media and a spineless political class yet another coercive weapon,” she wrote.

“Hence, in 2026, the board, in an atmosphere of intense political pressure, has issued an edict that an author is to be cancelled.”

Separately on Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would hold a national day of mourning on January 22 to honour the victims of the Bondi Beach attack.

He said the day would be a “gathering of unity and remembrance”, with flags to be flown at half-mast on all Commonwealth buildings.