Randa Abdel-Fattah confirmed for Newcastle Writers Festival, minister denounces ‘cancelling artists or festivals’

Palestinian-Australian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah will appear at the Newcastle Writers’ Festival, as the state’s Arts Minister denounces “cancelling artists or events”. Dr Abdel-Fattah made headlines earlier this year after she was disinvited from the Adelaide Writers Week, leading to the event being cancelled following a mass exodus of participants in protest. The board claimed the decision was made due to “cultural sensitivity” following the Bondi Beach massacre, however ultimately invited Dr Abdel-Fattah to the 2027 event. In a post, author Maeve Marsden on Friday revealed she would be participating in a conversation during the Newcastle Writers’ Week with Dr Abdel-Fattah on her book Discipline, stating the academic had been the “subject of sustained racist censorship” and a smear campaign. Earlier, NSW Liberals MLC Aileen MacDonald had sought to grill the Labor government over whether the festival’s $250,000 grant was an “appropriate use of taxpayer money”, which she alleged would “provide a platform for (an) anti-Semitic propagandist”. Arts Minister John Graham responded, stating he was “not a big fan of cancel culture — of cancelling artists or festivals”, but that the state government’s priority was social cohesion. “In my time as Arts Minister, I have faced a range of those calls from all quarters,” to cancel events, Mr Graham said. “But, we do have expectations about how people will behave. We will not accept hate speech. The laws are clear. “We do expect festivals and cultural institutions to make a contribution to social cohesion. Everyone has a responsibility to do that. Arts and culture can help and it should help at the moment.” Mr Graham said he did not support the “cancelling (of) Thomas Friedman or Deborah Conway or a range of Palestinian artists”, which he said “backfires pretty rapidly”. He said the government was working with cultural institutions to make sure “Jewish arts and culture-lovers feel welcome”. It comes after federal Liberal MP Julian Leeser called on the Albanese government to ensure a rival South Australian event launched in the wake of the Adelaide Writers’ Week cancellation and featuring Dr Abdel-Fattah would not receive taxpayer funds. “That event is wholly and solely designed to give prominence to notorious and controversial academic Randa Abdel-Fattah,” he said. “I am calling on Tony Burke to ensure taxpayer funds are not being used to endorse divisive and hateful narratives by supporting this rogue festival.” South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has repeatedly expressed concern over Dr Abdel-Fattah’s participation in the event, but has forcefully denied he pressured the board to rescind their invitation. Dr Abdel-Fattah’s lawyers have served two concerns notices for defamation on the Premier, including over statements alleging she “argued in favour of Jewish people not receiving cultural safety at these types of events”. Instead, Dr Abdel-Fattah argued the remarks were not anti-Semitic and that they were not about a racial group, but rather “political ideologies”, being Zionism. Labor MLC Stephen Lawrence on Thursday night backed Dr Abdel-Fattah, stating comments by Mr Malinauskas on 7.30 “correctly cited her statement that Zionists are not entitled to cultural safety”. “However, during the interview, he omitted the ‘cultural’ part and said that she had said Zionists are not entitled to be safe. “That is doing considerable injustice to what she said. It completely twists the meaning of cultural safety. “He has mischaracterised what she said in a way that defames her and suggests that she is a racist, horrible person who thinks that people that have a particular ideology about Israel and so forth should not be safe.” Mr Lawrence said it would be a ‘terrible injustice” if Dr Abdel-Fattah was excluded from the Newcastle festival. South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas has been contacted for comment.