{"id":11257,"date":"2026-01-11T05:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=11257"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:00:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:00:28","slug":"adelaide-festival-did-not-dump-jewish-columnist-from-2024-program-despite-request-from-randa-abdel-fattah-and-others-adelaide-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=11257","title":{"rendered":"Adelaide festival did not dump Jewish columnist from 2024 program despite request from Randa Abdel-Fattah and others | Adelaide festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Adelaide festival<\/a> board did not dump a Jewish columnist from its 2024 lineup at Adelaide writers\u2019 week, despite being lobbied by a group of 10 academics \u2013 including Randa Abdel-Fattah \u2013 to do so.<\/p>\n

On Saturday South Australia\u2019s premier, Peter Malinauskas, claimed that the board had dumped the New York Times pro-Israel columnist Thomas Friedman in 2024, and reiterated his support<\/a> for the festival board\u2019s decision on Thursday to remove Abdel-Fattah<\/a>, a Palestinian Australian academic, from this year\u2019s program.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI note the Adelaide<\/a> Festival also made its own decision to remove a Jewish writer from the Adelaide Writers\u2019 Week program in 2024 in very similar circumstances,\u201d Malinauskas told the Guardian through a spokesperson on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI support that decision, and the consistent application of this principle.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday News Corp publications picked up on the premier\u2019s statement, reporting the apparent inconsistency between the public outcry against Abdel-Fattah\u2019s removal compared with the alleged removal of Friedman two years earlier, which did not ignite the massive boycott the writers\u2019 week is now seeing, making the 2026 event look increasingly untenable.<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia has independently confirmed that more than 70 participants have now withdrawn.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/sub><\/a><\/p>\n

Abdel-Fattah and nine other academics sent the Adelaide festival board a letter on 6 February 2024, requesting it rescind the invitation to Friedman, who had published a controversial column days earlier, which compared the Middle East conflict to the animal kingdom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, in a letter seen by the Guardian, the festival board rejected this petition to remove Friedman.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsking the Adelaide Festival and Adelaide Writers Week to cancel an artist or writer is an extremely serious request,\u201d the letter stated. It was dated 9 February 2024 and signed by the Adelaide festival board\u2019s chair, Tracey Whiting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an international reputation for supporting artistic freedom of expression. Thomas L Friedman was programmed to contribute online from New York. However, I have been advised that due to last-minute scheduling issues, he is no longer participating in this year\u2019s program.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Guardian sought comment from Friedman in New York.<\/p>\n

The letter suggests that Abdel-Fattah\u2019s removal from the 2026 event was the first time the board has not supported the programming decision of its director, Louise Adler.<\/p>\n

After the announcement of her cancellation on Thursday, Abdel-Fattah accused the board of \u201cblatant and shameless\u201d anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.<\/p>\n

She told Guardian Australia on Sunday she rejected any allegation of hypocrisy, having called for Friedman\u2019s removal from the festival in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cFriedman\u2019s widely criticised NYT article compared various Arab and Muslim nations and groups to insects and vermin requiring eradication at a time when talk of \u2018human animals\u2019 was being used to justify wholesale slaughter in Gaza,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were concerned about the impact of Friedman\u2019s views on socially and historically marginalised people who have been dehumanised and discriminated against by the use of such racist tropes. Indeed, one of the examples we supplied was how Jewish people have historically been likened to vermin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn contrast, I was cancelled because my presence and identity as a Palestinian was deemed \u2018culturally insensitive\u2019 and linked to the Bondi atrocity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was cancelled because I, a Palestinian, have been a vocal advocate against the actual extermination of my people.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Abdel-Fattah suggested it was the festival board who had acted hypocritically, given it had cited its commitment to \u201cartistic freedom of expression\u201d in its 2024 response to the Friedman matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll such supposed values were discarded when it came to cancelling me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the column, Friedman compared the US to an ageing lion, Iran to a parasitoid wasp that infects and kills caterpillars (Lebanon, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq), Hamas to a trap-door spider and Benjamin Netanyahu to a sifaka lemur.<\/p>\n

Friedman subsequently acknowledged that some of his readers, including colleagues, felt insulted by what he had written, finding it dehumanising and invoking racist tropes. He wrote: \u201cIf invoking a metaphor or image alienates and angers part of my audience, I know I used the wrong metaphor \u2026 I would never want to leave anyone feeling insulted, even if I hit the mark with others.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its statement on Thursday, the festival board said that while it did not suggest \u201cin any way\u201d that Abdel-Fattah or her writings had any connection with the tragedy at Bondi, the decision was made \u201cgiven her past statements\u201d.<\/p>\n

Abdel-Fattah previously faced sustained criticism<\/a> from the Coalition, some Jewish bodies and media outlets for controversial comments about Israel, including alleging that Zionists had \u201cno claim or right to cultural safety\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have formed the view that it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand these Board decisions will likely be disappointing to many in our community. We also recognise our request to Dr Abdel-Fattah will be labelled and will cause discomfort and pressure to other participants. These decisions have not been taken lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023 Adler refused to dump the Palestinian authors Susan Abulhawa and Mohammed El-Kurd, despite major sponsor withdrawals and boycotts from Ukrainian writers.<\/p>\n

Adler argued that festivals should be \u201cbrave spaces\u201d for confronting difficult ideas through literature, rather than \u201csafe spaces\u201d designed for consensus.<\/p>\n

At the time, the board supported her in that decision, and Malinauskas publicly stated that while he was \u201cgenuinely disturbed\u201d by some of the two authors\u2019 views, it was not for politicians to \u201cdecide what is culturally appropriate\u201d.<\/p>\n

The South Australian government appoints members to the festival board but a spokesperson for the premier told the Guardian the government had no power to direct the board in its decision-making processes over artistic programming.<\/p>\n