Adelaide Writers’ festival Plunged into boycott Over Palestinian Author’s Exclusion
A growing wave of authors, journalists, and sponsors are boycotting the Adelaide writers’ Festival following the board’s decision to remove Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah from its 2025 lineup. The festival cited concerns over “cultural sensitivity” in the wake of the Bondi terror attack as the reason for its decision, sparking widespread condemnation and accusations of censorship.
the controversy began on Thursday when the festival board announced it would no longer include Abdel-Fattah in the program. While the board stated it did not believe Abdel-Fattah or her work had any connection to the Bondi tragedy, it explained the decision was made “given her past statements.”
This decision has triggered a cascade of withdrawals from prominent figures in the Australian literary and media landscape. By Friday morning, writers Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper, Sarah Krasnostein, Miles Franklin winner Michelle de Kretser, and poet Evelyn Araluen were among those who had publicly withdrawn from the festival. Carr, a board member, publicly supported the board’s decision.Carr argued that while he sympathized wiht the Palestinian cause, some of Abdel-Fattah’s past statements were “counterproductive.” He stated,”The Adelaide writers’ festival has supported hearing Palestinian voices,its record on this is unimpeachable,” and added that the board’s decision,given the recent events in Bondi,was “not unreasonable.”
The decision has been widely condemned as a suppression of free speech and a discriminatory act. Author Hannah Kent described the move as a “gross act of discrimination and censorship” in a social media post. Reporter Amy remeikis criticized the board’s “deliberate choice to silence a prominent Palestinian-Australian academic without offering any clear or convincing rationale.”
This incident echoes a similar walkout at the 2025 Bendigo Writers’ Festival last year, which experienced a mass withdrawal of participants following the implementation of a restrictive code of conduct. Wright, co-curator of the 2025 Bendigo festival, expressed her “appalled” reaction to the adelaide festival board’s “wrong-headedness and short-sightedness.”
The Australia Institute, a public policy thinktank, has withdrawn its sponsorship for the 2026 event, citing the festival’s historical commitment to “bravery, freedom of expression and the exchange of ideas.”
Speaking on ABC radio on Friday, Abdel-Fattah described the decision as evidence of “egregious and unabashed anti-Palestinian” views becoming normalized. She characterized the festival’s action as an “obscene attempt to associate me with an atrocity” and emphasized her lack of involvement in the Bondi attack. “I cannot believe in 2026, that I, a Palestinian who has witnessed my people’s livestream genocide for two years, am now having to say publicly ‘I have nothing to do with the Bondi atrocities’,” she stated. abdel-Fattah has called on the festival to issue an apology, retract its statement, and reinstate her invitation.
She acknowledged the “heartening” wave of solidarity demonstrated by the boycott and suggested the board anticipated this response. abdel-Fattah expressed confidence that the writing community and the public would respond with “principle and integrity.” She warned that the festival would be left with participants who “demonise a Palestinian out of one side of their mouths while waxing lyrical about freedom of speech from the other.”
In 2023, the then-Adelaide Writers’ Week director, Louise Adler, successfully resisted pressure to withdraw invitations to Palestinian writers due to their views on Ukraine and Israel. The Stella Prize-winning poet Evelyn Araluen was among the first to publicly withdraw in support of Abdel-Fattah, calling the decision a “betrayal” of the festival’s democratic ethos. Araluen asserted,”Erasing palestinians from public life in Australia won’t prevent antisemitism. removing Palestinians from writers’ festivals won’t prevent antisemitism.I refuse to participate in this spectacle of censorship.”
The festival board has been contacted for comment.
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