Nearly 50 Authors Withdraw From Writers’ Festival After Staunch Israel Critic Dropped

A few writers complained the move equated to censorship.

A police boat (R) patrols near a giant screen ahead of a memorial for the victims of a shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney on December 21, 2025. David Gray/AFP via Getty Images

Close to 50 authors have withdrawn from the Adelaide Festival in protest of an earlier decision by board members to drop Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah from its line-up.

The board issued a statement on Jan. 8 outlining its concerns about the cultural sensitivity of including Abdel-Fattah—a consistent critic of Israel—in the wake of the Bondi Beach anti-Semitic terror attack that claimed 15 lives and injured 40.

Organisers said they were not linking Abdel-Fattah to the Dec. 14 massacre, but believed her presence would not be suitable at the Adelaide Writers’ Week section of the event.

Abdel-Fattah has previously called for the “end of Israel” and controversially posted a social media image of a Palestinian parachuter after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel, which claimed 1,200 lives.

Some Hamas members entered Israel using parachutes.

Abdel-Fattah has also referred to Zionism as a “death cult” and once wrote, “Congratulations to the people of the Holocaust for committing a holocaust.”

Who Has Withdrawn So Far?

Some of the other names walking away from the Adelaide Writers’ Week include feminist Jane Caro, Helen Garner, Michelle de Krester, Trent Dalton, Evelyn Araluen, Sarah Krasnostein, journalist Peter Greste, Masha Gessen, Hannah Ferguson, Amy Remeikis, Chelsea Watego, Bernadette Brennan, Miles Franklin, Jennifer Mills, Hannah Kent, and Melissa Lucashenko.

International writers M. Gessen, Zadie Smith, and Yanis Varoufakis also withdrew, as well as progressive-leaning think tank The Australia Institute announced its withdrawal on Jan. 8,

“We don’t help social cohesion by silencing voices,” Greste wrote on X.

“I was to appear, but if the festival sticks with this decision, I’m out.”

In a statement, Caro said her withdrawal came with great sadness.

“I was, as always thrilled to be invited and was very much looking forward to the very feminist panels I was asked to participate in. Frankly, we have never needed such conversations more.”

But Caro said removing Abdel-Fatah was “an attack on the very things that make writers festivals the amazing events they are.”

“Authoritarianism is rising all around us,” she said. “It thrives on controlling and squashing and censoring ideas it does not like. I refuse to participate in that.”

Hanna Kent posted to her social media, calling the move to ban Abdel-Fattah a “gross act of discrimination and censorship.”

Support for Abdel-Fattah’s Removal

Australian Jewish Association CEO Robert Gregory said he agreed with Abdel-Fattah’s removal.

“Randa Abdel-Fattah should have never been invited to speak at the Adelaide Writers festival,” he told The Epoch Times.

“Abdel-Fattah glorified the October 7 massacre and has in the past said that Zionists ‘have no claim or right to cultural safety.’

“The local Jewish community was understandably concerned and her presence would have continued to damage social cohesion following the Bondi Beach massacre.”

Gregory said there should be an examination of taxpayer funded events, which have a history of inviting speakers hostile to Jews or who spread division.

The Epoch Times contacted Abdel-Fattah for comment.