A prominent Jewish author says the stifling of criticism of Israel is increasing levels of anti-Semitism, as a major national festival “capitulates” and cancels its event.
Adelaide Festival has canned its Writers’ Week event following a mass boycott from authors in response to Palestinian-Australian novelist Randa Abdel-Fattah being removed from the program.
In announcing her resignation, director Louise Adler said “extreme and repressive” efforts from pro-Israel lobbyists had been behind the board decision and said it had weakened freedom of speech.
Dr Abdel-Fattah has been targeted by conservative Jewish groups for sharing posts critical of alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
Independent journalist and author Antony Loewenstein, who sits on the advisory committee of the Jewish Council of Australia and has regularly appeared at the Adelaide event, said such lobbying moves were “a familiar pattern”.
“What worries me greatly is these kinds of actions are worsening anti-Semitism because what a lot of people are seeing, and I’m talking about non-Jews here, is often secretive, powerful, in my view bigoted, powerful forces trying to curtail or silence critical voices,” he told AAP.
“That leads to very unfortunate stereotypes about Jews, which is something I worry about as a Jew.”
Adelaide Festival is not the first organisation to face strong backlash after deplatforming an individual who had criticised Israel’s actions in Gaza.
A similar boycott occurred at the 2025 Bendigo Writers Festival when more than 50 writers and moderators boycotted the event over concerns its code of conduct would suppress discussion of Israel’s bombardment, with a co-curator arguing it had been subject to a lobbying campaign to remove Dr Abdel-Fattah.
The ABC unlawfully sacked journalist Antoinette Lattouf for sharing a post relating to the conflict in Gaza and was fined $150,000 as a result.
A Federal Court judge found the ABC “surrendered” to a co-ordinated email campaign against Ms Lattouf by pro-Israel lobbyists and sacrificed her for spurious reasons.
Reflecting on Dr Abdel-Fattah’s removal, Ms Lattouf urged the media to “hold its gaze” on Gaza, rather than “manufactured controversies designed to exhaust and distract”.
“It is both baffling and disheartening to watch institutions continue to bend to pro-Israel lobby pressure as the genocide intensifies, ceasefire breaches pile up, and Australia’s democracy is strained by attempts to silence criticism of these assaults,” she told AAP.
Former chair Judy Potter will return to head up a new Adelaide Festival board after its previous board members quit over the writers’ festival drama.
“We’ve had a very challenging week … we really need to wrap our arms around the Adelaide Festival as a state,” South Australian Arts Minister Andrea Michaels said.
Premier Peter Malinauskas has been accused by the Greens and arts commentators of placing pressure on the board to rescind its invitation to Dr Abdel-Fattah, a claim rejected by the Labor premier.