SYDNEY: The director of a number one Australian writers’ competition resigned in protest on Tuesday (Jan 13) after the board cancelled an look by a Palestinian-Australian writer.
Scores of contributors, together with former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, have boycotted the Adelaide Pageant over a call to exclude Randa Abdel-Fattah.
Writers’ Week director Louise Adler joined the exodus, blaming the “excessive and repressive efforts of pro-Israel lobbyists”.
“The humanities have allegedly grow to be ‘unsafe’ and artists are a hazard to the group’s psycho-social wellbeing,” she wrote in an open letter printed by The Guardian newspaper.
“However let’s be clear, the routine invocation of ‘security’ is code for ‘I do not need to hear your opinion’.
“On this occasion, it seems to use solely to a Palestinian invitee.”
Australia’s premier annual cultural occasion, which lures artists from around the globe, unleashed the storm final week when it advised Abdel-Fattah it didn’t “want to proceed” along with her look.
Adler mentioned the board had made this resolution regardless of her “strongest opposition”.
Abdel-Fattah has confronted criticism over some statements, together with a submit on X in October 2024 saying: “The aim is decolonisation and the top of this murderous Zionist colony.”
The competition board mentioned it was “shocked and saddened” by the Dec 14 mass shooting at a Jewish festival on Bondi Beach, which killed 15 folks, and its resolution to exclude Abdel-Fattah was not taken calmly.
However the shunned writer and educational mentioned it was a “blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism”.
It was a “despicable try and affiliate me with the Bondi bloodbath”, she mentioned in a press release.
New Zealand’s Ardern on Monday joined some 180 artists and contributors who’ve pulled out, a competition spokesperson advised native media.
