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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Entertainment
Kelly Burke

Adelaide festival did not dump Jewish columnist from 2024 program despite request from Randa Abdel-Fattah and others

Randa Abdel-Fattah speaks on a panel at Adelaide writers’ week in 2023
Randa Abdel-Fattah on a panel at Adelaide writers’ week in 2023. The next year she and others requested that the festival rescind its invitation to pro-Israel columnist Thomas Friedman, who had published a controversial column days earlier. Photograph: /Andrew Beveridge

The Adelaide festival board did not dump a Jewish columnist from its 2024 lineup at Adelaide writers’ week, despite being lobbied by a group of 10 academics – including Randa Abdel-Fattah – to do so.

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.

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