100 writers pull out of Australia arts event after Palestinian author disinvited
Dozens of writers and several board members have resigned from Australia’s Adelaide Festival after a Palestinian‑Australian author was dropped from the event over what organizers described as “cultural sensitivities” following a December shooting attack on a Jewish ceremony at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
The mass resignation followed the ban on Randa Abdel-Fattah in the Writers’ Week event at the festival, which will take place from February 27 to March 15, 2026.
The Adelaide Festival confirmed its chairman and three board members, as well as 100 writers from 124 participants, had resigned in protest at the cancellation of Abdel-Fattah's invitation. The blocked author’s lawyers also demanded an explanation.
Australia’s premier annual cultural event, which attracts artists from around the world, unleashed the storm last Thursday, when it told Abdel-Fattah it did not “wish to proceed” with her appearance at its Writers’ Week.
“Whilst we do not suggest in any way that Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah 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,” it asserted in a statement.
The festival board said it was “shocked and saddened” by the December 14 mass shooting during the Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach, which killed 15 people.
The death toll could have been higher if Ahmed al-Ahmed, a 43-year-old Muslim Australian of Syrian descent, had not tackled one of the shooters and snatched his gun.
The shunned author and academic said it was a “blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism.”
It was a “despicable attempt to associate me with the Bondi massacre,” she said in a statement.
Her legal representatives, Marque Lawyers, sent a letter to the festival on Sunday, demanding that it identify statements by the author that justified excluding her.
Festival executive director Julian Hobba said the arts body was “facing a complex and unprecedented moment”, following “significant community response” to the council's decision.
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