"Abdel-Fattah and nine other academics sent the Adelaide festival board a letter on 6 February 2024, requesting it rescind the invitation to Friedman, who had published a controversial column days earlier, which compared the Middle East conflict to the animal kingdom. However, in a letter seen by the Guardian, the festival board rejected this petition to remove Friedman. Asking the Adelaide Festival and Adelaide Writers Week to cancel an artist or writer is an extremely serious request, the letter stated."
"On Saturday South Australia's premier, Peter Malinauskas, claimed that the board had dumped the New York Times pro-Israel columnist Thomas Friedman in 2024, and reiterated his support for the festival board's decision on Thursday to remove Abdel-Fattah, a Palestinian Australian academic, from this year's program. I note the Adelaide Festival also made its own decision to remove a Jewish writer from the Adelaide Writers' Week program in 2024 in very similar circumstances, Malinauskas told the Guardian through a spokesperson on Saturday."
South Australia's premier asserted that the Adelaide Festival had previously removed New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in 2024 while endorsing the board's removal of Palestinian Australian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah from this year's program. A group of ten academics including Abdel-Fattah had lobbied the festival in February 2024 to rescind Friedman's invitation after a controversial column. The festival board rejected that petition in a 9 February letter signed by chair Tracey Whiting, citing an international reputation for supporting artistic freedom of expression. More than 70 participants have withdrawn from the upcoming writers' week, raising doubts about the viability of the 2026 event.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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