In short
- Sydney Writers’ Festival said in a statement that it had “no intention to cancel or censor writers”.
- Randa Abdel-Fattah was removed from this year’s Adelaide Writers’ Week line-up, sparking a mass boycott.
Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah will headline Australia’s biggest writers’ festival after her removal from another literary event caused a national furor.
The Sydney Writers’ Festival has confirmed that the high-profile academic will feature in its 2026 programme, with visitors invited to form their own opinions about her writing.
Abdel-Fattah was dropped from the line-up during Adelaide Writers’ Week earlier in 2026, leading to a massive boycott by speakers and authors, the resignation of director Louise Adler in protest, and culminating in the event cancellation.
The author was removed from the event after comments about Israel and Zionism, including a widely reported message in which she said Zionists had “no right to cultural safety.”
The Adelaide Festival board has since apologised invited her to the 2027 edition.
A statement from Sydney Writers’ Festival CEO Brooke Webb and artistic director Ann Mossop supported Abdel-Fattah, adding “without writers there is no festival”.
“A festival like ours, which holds freedom of expression as a core value, is not intended to eliminate or censor writers,” the statement said.
“A writers’ festival offers readers and writers a rare and welcome opportunity to come together for nuanced conversations about complex and sometimes difficult topics… readers can decide for themselves what they would like to attend.”
In a social media post announcing her performance at the festival, Abdel-Fattah said: “Celebrate victories amid stifling repression and racism. May we all remain undisciplined.”
Organizers’ decision to include her defied comments from NSW Premier Chris Minns, who had questioned Abdel-Fattah’s inclusion at another festival in Newcastle.
“We respect public figures and community members may hold different views… they have the right to do so,” the Sydney Writers’ Festival statement said.
Abdel-Fattah had defended her comments in the wake of Adelaide’s cancellation, denying that she ever said Jewish people were not entitled to cultural safety.
“But political ideologies cannot use cultural security as a shield against criticism,” she told ABC Radio in January.
“I am truly fed up with my words being deliberately, maliciously and mendaciously mischaracterized to portray me as an anti-Semite, even though I have never expressed any anti-Semitism.”
She has also filed a defamation lawsuit against South Australian Prime Minister Peter Malinauskas over comments comparing her to a “terrorist sympathizer”.
Sydney Writers’ Festival will announce its full 2026 program on March 10. The event will take place in May.
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