77 writers have withdrawn from the Adelaide Writers’ Week (AWW) after the Adelaide Festival Board decided to drop Australian-Palestinian author Randa Abdel-Fattah for community cohesion.
In a statement, the Adelaide Festival Board explained “[it] would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program [Abdel-Fattah] at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi”, referencing the recent Bondi Beach massacre where 15 people were gunned down in cold blood. The board’s decision considered the “current national community context and the rule of Adelaide Festival in promoting community cohesion”.
Responding on social media, Abdel-Fattah described the decision as a “blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship and a despicable attempt to associate me with the Bondi massacre”.
When community cohesion and similarly vague phrases are invoked to justify censorship, a dangerous precedent is set. Randa Abdel-Fattah’s exclusion should worry writers and defenders of free expression as it introduces a slippery slope.
In 2025, Louise Adler, director of the AWW, said “recognising and respecting the independence of the artistic judgment and the curatorial judgment should be fundamental”.
Dominic Anderton
Photo credit: Andrew Beveridge.