"Louise Adler, the director of Adelaide Writers' Week, said in an op-ed published on Tuesday that Randa Abdel-Fattah had been disinvited by the festival's board despite her strongest opposition. Writing in The Guardian, Adler called Abdel-Fattah's removal from the festival lineup a blow to free expression and a harbinger of a less free nation. Now religious leaders are to be policed, universities monitored, the public broadcaster scrutinised and the arts starved, Adler wrote."
"The festival's board announced last week that it had decided to disinvite Abdel-Fattah, a well-known Palestinian advocate and vocal critic of Israel, after determining that her appearance would not be culturally sensitive in the wake of a mass shooting at Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach. Abdel-Fattah has called her removal a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and a despicable attempt to associate me with the Bondi massacre."
Louise Adler resigned as director of Adelaide Writers' Week after the festival board disinvited Randa Abdel-Fattah despite Adler's strongest opposition. Adler described Abdel-Fattah's removal as a blow to free expression and a harbinger of a less free nation, warning that religious leaders, universities, the public broadcaster and the arts would face new scrutiny and restrictions. The board said Abdel-Fattah was disinvited because her appearance would not be culturally sensitive following a mass shooting at Bondi Beach that killed fifteen people. Abdel-Fattah called the disinvitation a blatant act of anti-Palestinian racism and a despicable attempt to associate her with the massacre. The controversy prompted speaker withdrawals, board resignations and an expanding boycott including Jacinda Ardern.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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