Australian columnist Parnell Palme McGuinness criticized a group of writers boycotting the Adelaide Writers' Week festival, describing their solidarity as ironic given the context.
The boycott follows the Adelaide Festival board's recent decision to remove Palestinian-Australian writer and academic Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah from the Writers' Week lineup. Abdel-Fattah was scheduled to discuss her new book, Discipline, at the event running from February 28 to March 5, 2026.
The board cited "cultural sensitivity" concerns following a deadly antisemitic shooting in Bondi, Sydney, in December 2025 that killed 15 people, though they emphasized no direct link to Abdel-Fattah or her work.
Abdel-Fattah has faced ongoing controversy for her pro-Palestinian 'activism'. On October 8, 2023, the day after the Hamas attacks on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and involved terrorists using paragliders, she posted an image of a paraglider silhouetted against a Palestinian flag on social media.
Jewish community groups interpreted this as glorifying the attacks, though Abdel-Fattah has defended it as a symbol of Palestinian resistance.
She has also been accused of antisemitism in the past, including for allegedly doxing Jewish creatives in 2024 and making statements about Zionists' "fragile feelings" and lack of "cultural safety."
In 2025, her $870,000 research grant was temporarily suspended amid an investigation but was later reinstated after she was cleared.
