Ukrainian authors who have chosen to withdraw from Adelaide Writers' Week have opened up on their reasons, with one saying she could not participate in "any kind of event that gives voice" to doubts about her nation's sovereignty.
Kateryna Babkina and Olesya Khromeychuk had been due to speak at the upcoming event at a session chaired by Australian-based cultural historian and compatriot Maria Tumarkin, but the trio has decided not to appear.
The festival's director Louise Adler said the three authors objected to the public statements of another guest, Palestinian-American Susan Abulhawa, about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In tweets, Ms Abulhawa has accused Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy of dragging "the whole world into the inferno of WWIII instead of giving up NATO armament ambitions" and "always asking for more weapons and more war".
Ms Adler said she was disappointed that Ms Babkina, Ms Khromeychuk and Ms Tumarkin had opted not to attend, but respected their decisions.
In a statement, Ms Babkina told the ABC she was also disappointed, but felt compelled to take the stance that she has.
"I just can't participate [in] any kind of event that gives voice to the person doubting Ukrainian sovereignty and legal borders," she said.
"I've only made … brief research on Susan Abulhawa's statements and that was enough to see they are awfully far from reality and very anti-Ukrainian.
"I do think this should not be given a voice and I certainly can't support it in any way, even by participation [at] the festival."
Ms Babkina said while she "did not vote for this Ukrainian government myself", she praised its actions in resisting "bloody and violent aggression".
"Honestly I don't think there can be a second opinion on this. The aggressor is and should be always the only one to blame, not the victims," she said.
In a statement on her website, Maria Tumarkin said she did not support calls "for resignations, cancellations, or boycotts of Adelaide Writers' Week".
But she emphatically objected to talk of "NATO warmongering" at a time when "Russian troops are killing, raping, torturing and kidnapping civilians across Ukraine".
"Russian missiles are destroying hospitals, schools and residential high-rises with sleeping families inside them daily and nightly," Ms Tumarkin wrote.
"Statements in which Zelenskyy, who's Jewish, is called a Nazi, fascist, someone responsible for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and/or WWIII are not anti-Zelenskyy and/or pro-Putin. They are forms of genocide cheering."
Ms Tumarkin said she had permission to quote from Dr Khromeychuk's letter revealing her decision to withdraw, in which the latter said she felt "saddened" that calls to "not give a platform to voices that repeat Kremlin propaganda are not always heard".
"In this war, Russia is targeting the Ukrainian people and their culture, a culture that has been ignored in the wider world for far too long, and has appeared on many cultural institutions' radars only as it was being destroyed by the Russian bombs," she said.
Writers' Week organisers have said the line-up includes several authors who "deplore the invasion of Ukraine" including Belarusian Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich, who last year expressed concern about the rise of "Russian fascism".
"What is happening in Ukraine is terrorism," she told the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Leaders, governments should not be off-limits, author says
Earlier this week, law firm and Adelaide Festival sponsor MinterEllison also voiced concerns about rhetoric employed by Ms Abulhawa, who has called Mr Zelenskyy a "Nazi-promoting Zionist", has referred to Israel and Zionism as "degenerate", has repeatedly compared Zionism to Nazism, and has described the Israeli state as "literally the incubator of modern fascism".
MinterEllison said it had approached event organisers about "certain public statements made by Ms Abulhawa" — who is scheduled to appear at three separate sessions — and another Palestinian writer, Mohammed El-Kurd.
"We do not agree with those views. We have strongly expressed our reservations to the festival," the firm said.
"We sought the festival's assurances that no racist or anti-Semitic commentary should be tolerated as part of Mr El-Kurd's or Ms Abulhawa's or any other festival session."
Ms Adler has repeatedly defended the appearance of both writers, saying that, as Writers' Week director, she had a "policy of zero tolerance of racism" but that "criticism of Israel is not the same as anti-Semitism, it is not a form of racism".
Another author scheduled to appear at the event, Macquarie University researcher Randa Abdel-Fattah, has also endorsed both Palestinian writers and defended Ms Abulhawa's right to express her views on Ukraine.
"Whatever one thinks of Susan's tweets, since when are political leaders, governments and states off-limits as subjects of personal opinion and political expression?," she said in a statement.
"Demanding that she — or any writer — have an 'accurate/correct/appropriate' take on certain issues in the world in order to be permitted a platform to speak is extremely dangerous."
Like Ms Adler, Dr Abdel-Fattah said it was crucial that critics of the Israeli government and military retained the right to speak out "without being smeared as anti-Semitic".
"Last night, 11 Palestinians were killed in the occupied town of Nablus," Dr Abdel-Fattah said.
"As Israel's crimes are undeniably exposed by Palestinians, by the most prestigious human rights organisations in the world, efforts to silence and censor Palestinians are getting more desperate."
