Hunter Writers’ Centre joins with many other organisations and writers from across the world in condemning the recent decision by the Adelaide Festival Board to remove Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from the Adelaide Writers Week program. Dr Abdel-Fattah is a well-known Palestinian Australian author.

The Adelaide Festival Board claims that, in the wake of the Bondi terrorist attack, it was important to maintain community cohesion and therefore made the decision to remove an Australian writer who was due to speak on her latest work, Discipline.

‘We are angered at the decision to cancel Dr Abdel-Fattah’s inclusion in this year’s festival and have written to the Adelaide Festival Board,’ said Glenn Beatty, Chair of Hunter Writers’ Centre. ‘Many of our members travel each year to the Adelaide Writers Week and we are urging them to boycott the festival unless Dr Abdel-Fattah’s invitation is reinstated and an apology made to her.’

‘Writers’ Festivals should celebrate the diversity of voices in this country. Community cohesion cannot be maintained when certain voices are silenced and marginalised,’ Mr Beatty said. ‘Dr Abdel-Fattah was not responsible for the appalling attack at Bondi. Yet the Adelaide Festival appears to be using the killing of innocent people as an excuse to silence a Palestinian Australian voice.’

Hunter Writers’ Centre values freedom of expression as a fundamental human right and upholds the right of artists to express diverse, complex and even contradictory ideas. We are committed to ensuring that historically marginalised voices are given respect, agency and meaningful inclusion in our cultural and literary landscape.

Hunter Writers’ Centre does not support racism, hate speech, or bigotry. We believe in a literary and storytelling culture that reflects the world as it is—complicated and multifaceted, awash with beauty, ugliness, wonder, joy and heartbreak.

For further comment, please contact Chair of Hunter Writers’ Centre, Glenn Beatty on 0419 146 158.