One of Australia’s biggest art festivals is facing a backlash and calls for a boycott after its organisers announced that it would cancel the scheduled appearance of a prominent Palestinian-Australian author and scholar, citing concerns about “cultural sensitivity” in the wake of the Bondi Beach attack.
The Adelaide Festival board said in a statement on Thursday that its members “do not wish to proceed” with Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah’s appearance, as it “would not be culturally sensitive… so soon after" the attack on a Hanukkah celebration that killed 15 people in December.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Abdel-Fattah called the move “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism”, rejecting the association between her and the Bondi massacre.
“The Board’s reasoning suggests that my mere presence is ‘culturally insensitive’; that I, a Palestinian who had nothing to do with the Bondi atrocity, am somehow a trigger for those in mourning and that I should therefore be persona non grata in cultural circles because my very presence as a Palestinian is threatening and ‘unsafe’,” she continued in her statement.
RW mfers be like ‘we gonna stop cancel culture’ then cancel someone just for being brown😭
Yeah, but it’s the neo nazis that are tired of being cancelled for their shitass opinions and takes on politics. They like it when brown people are made to be quiet.
OK but what does she write about?
It matters if its science, poetry, religion, politics, or children’s books, and I don’t see it in the article
Her writing wasn’t why she was cancelled though, it was at the request of a Jewish Lobby 'as a mark of respect in these troubled times". Apparently the troubled times in Gaza are unimportant.
I find it problemeatic, as do many writers who have withdrawn as a protest.
From the article
Abdel-Fattah is a fellow at Macquarie University in Sydney and a former litigation lawyer. In addition to her academic publications, she has also published multiple award-winning novels and a picture book.
She is known for her research, essays, media appearances and op-ed writing across a range of topics, including Islamophobia, Palestine, the “war on terror”, youth identities and social movement activism.
In 2025, she was one of 50 authors who boycotted the Bendigo writers’ festival following censorship concerns over a last-minute change to its code of conduct which accepted a controversial definition of antisemitism.
