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One of Australia’s top literary festivals has issued a fresh apology and invited a Palestinian-Australian author to its 2027 edition after her controversial removal generated a massive backlash.
Randa Abdel-Fattah was dumped on 8 January from the Adelaide Writers’ Week line-up in a board decision, triggering a mass boycott by 180 speakers and the resignation of its renowned director and several board members.
Writers’ week, which was due to start in February, was entirely canned after its program collapsed, with a new board and chair installed.
The former Adelaide Festival board issued a renewed apology on Thursday, following the cancellation of an author’s appearance due to “cultural sensitivity” concerns linked to the Bondi terror attack.
“We retract that statement. We have reversed the decision and will reinstate Dr Abdel-Fattah’s invitation to speak at the next Adelaide Writers’ Week in 2027,” the new board led by immediate past chair of the Adelaide Festival, Judy Potter, said on Thursday.
“We apologise to Dr Abdel-Fattah unreservedly for the harm the Adelaide Festival Corporation has caused her.
“Intellectual and artistic freedom is a powerful human right. Our goal is to uphold it, and in this instance Adelaide Festival Corporation fell well short.”
The board belatedly apologised to Abdel-Fattah on Tuesday for how the decision was represented, citing “a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression”.
On Wednesday evening, the board reached out to Abdel-Fattah with a proposal for a renewed apology and extended an invitation to participate in the 2027 event.
“I accept this unreserved apology as recognition of the damage caused to our community,” responded Abdel-Fattah.
The author told the Australian Associated Press she would consider accepting the invite to next year’s festival, confirming she would attend in a “heartbeat” if respected publisher Louise Adler was at the helm again.
“I accept this apology as acknowledgement of our right to speak publicly and truthfully about the atrocities that have been committed against the Palestinian people,” she said in a statement given to the Australian Associated Press.
“I accept this apology as a vindication of our collective solidarity and mobilisation against anti-Palestinian racism, bullying and censorship.
“I accept this unreserved apology as acknowledgement of the harm inflicted on our community.”
The Palestinian Australian academic and novelist had faced scrutiny over social media posts critical of Israel.
Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, British novelist Zadie Smith, author Trent Dalton, commentator Jane Caro and former Wallaby turned columnist Peter FitzSimons were among those who pulled out in solidarity with the academic.
Her axing was supported by South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, who remains steadfast in his position despite mounting criticism of political interference.
“I have a responsibility to call out those who expressly commit themselves to deny other people a voice, as Ms Abdel-Fattah has done,” he told ABC’s 7.30 program on Wednesday.
Abdel-Fattah has accused him of unleashing a “vicious personal assault” and suggesting at a press conference that she was an extremist terrorist sympathiser.
