Growing Boycott of Adelaide Festival over Cancellation of Palestinian Author 

January 9, 2026 News
Australian sociologist and writer Randa Abdel-Fattah. (Design: Palestine Chronicle)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

A widening boycott of Adelaide Writers’ Week has erupted after organizers removed Palestinian Australian author Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah from the program.

A growing number of writers have withdrawn from the Adelaide Writers Week scheduled for next month after the organizers decided to remove Palestinian Australian author and academic Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah from the lineup, citing “cultural sensitivity” concerns following the Bondi attack.

The decision has triggered widespread backlash and a growing boycott of the event leading the Adelaide Festival Board to “temporarily” unpublish the list of participants and events from its website.

“In respect of the wishes of the writers who have recently indicated their withdrawal from the Writers’ Week 2026 program, we have temporarily unpublished the list of participants and events while we work through changes to the website,” the organizers stated online.

‘Culturally Sensitive’

The Adelaide Festival Board issued a statement on Thursday saying that following “a review” in the last few weeks, we have today advised scheduled writer Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah that the Board has formed the judgment that we do not wish to proceed with her scheduled appearance at next month’s Writers’ Week.”

“Whilst we do not suggest in any way that Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah’s or her writings have any connection with the tragedy at Bondi, given her past statements we have formed the view that it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi,” the statement added.

By Friday afternoon, at least 47 participants had withdrawn from the event, according to The Guardian, with more expected to announce their boycott.

Abdel-Fattah, who is also a lawyer and a Macquarie University academic, has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s “live-streamed genocide of Palestinians” as well as Zionism.

‘Anti-Palestinian Racism’

Calling the festival organizers’ decision “racist”, Abdel-Fattah issued a statement soon after the announcement of her removal.

“This is a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship and a despicable attempt to associate me with the Bondi massacre,” Abdel-Fattah stated.

She added that what makes the board’s decision “so egregiously racist is that the Adelaide Writers Festival Board has stripped me of my humanity and agency, reducing me to an object onto which others can project their racist fears and smears.

“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.

‘Inhumanity towards Palestinians’

Abdel-Fattah said that after two years “of Israel’s live-streamed genocide of Palestinians, Australian arts and cultural institutions continue to reveal their utter contempt and inhumanity towards Palestinians.”

“The only Palestinians they will tolerate are silent and invisible ones,” she emphasized.

Randa noted that she remained confident that the writing community and the broader public “will ultimately respond with principle and integrity, as they did when I was singled out in the same racist way during the Bendigo Writers Festival.”

She added, “In the end, the Adelaide Writers Festival will be left with panellists who demonise a Palestinian out of one side of their mouths while waxing lyrical about freedom of speech from the other.”

Growing List

Among those who are boycotting the event are writers Helen Garner and Chloe Hooper, Miles Franklin winner Michelle de Kretser,  and Stella award-winning poet Dr. Evelyn Araluen.

“Earlier today I withdrew from the Adelaide Writers Week. Don’t underestimate our solidarity. I stand with Randa and all Palestinians resisting their erasure under colonial violence,” Araluen said on X.

First Nations figures such as Susie Anderson, Karen Wyld, Dominic Guerrera, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts, Tasma Walton and Gary Longsbrough are also reportedly boycotting the event.

‘Pen Mightier than Sword’

Australian-British author Kathy Lette said it was with “a heavy heart” that she is withdrawing from the event, “unless the Festival Board reinstates Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah.”

“But am heartened that so many writers are taking a stand for free speech together. Clearly, the pen is mightier than the Board,” she stated on X.

Lette said the board’s decision to censor Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.’”

“Decisions like this lead to the erasure of Palestinian writers and Palestinians more broadly from Australian public life,” Lette stressed.

Journalist and media freedom advocate Peter Greste also voiced his opposition to the removal of Abdel-Fattah, saying on X, “We don’t help social cohesion by silencing voices. I was to appear, but if the Festival sticks with this decision, I’m out.”

Jewish Council of Australia

The Jewish Council of Australia also said it “condemns in the strongest possible terms” the decision by the board to rescind Abdel-Fattah’s invitation “and the Board’s cynical and deplorable reference to the December 14th Bondi massacre.”

In a statement, the Council said the board’s claim of cultural sensitivity “exemplifies anti-Palestinian racism and the scapegoating of Palestinians in the supposed name of Jewish safety.” It said it stood with Abdel-Fattah and all those who have withdrawn from the festival in solidarity.

Thinktank Withdraws Sponsorship

The public policy thinktank, the Australia Institute, on Thursday announced it “is withdrawing its support and sponsored events from this year’s literary festival.”

“The Australia Institute has valued being part of discussions at the event, which in the past have promoted bravery, freedom of expression and the exchange of ideas. Censoring or cancelling authors is not in the spirit of an open and free exchange of ideas,” it said in a statement.

According to The Guardian, the Adelaide Writers’ Week director, Louise Adler, in 2023 “resisted pressure to withdraw invitations to two Palestinian writers over their views on Ukraine and Israel.”

(The Palestine Chronicle)

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