Berl Falbaum
Remember Bondi Beach?
Yes, that Bondi Beach, the one in Australia where 15 Jews were slaughtered by two gunmen —father and son reportedly inspired by ISIS — on Chanukah December 14 last year.
Remember how Australians grieved, cried, and said they did not have words to express their outrage along with condolences to the Jewish people not only in Australia but the world.
Well, for some in Australia officialdom, bereavement lasted all of 30 days.
On January 16, the board of directors of the Adelaide Arts Festival apologized — focus on “apologized” — to Palestinian Australian lawyer, novelist, and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah, after disinviting her from an event because of her support for Hamas, endorsement of violence against Israel, and calling for the elimination of the Jewish state.
Apologized!
This year’s event was cancelled because some 180 other authors from throughout the world refused to participate after Abdel-Fattah was disinvited.
All members of the board except one that had banned her resigned and a new board invited her back.
In its statement, the new board said it was apologizing “for the harm the Adelaide Festival Corporation has caused her.”
To fully understand this outrage, consider some of what Abdel-Fattah has said about Jews and Israel:
In March 2024, she posted on X: “Armed struggle is a moral and legal right of the colonised and brutalised… Western governments which use the blood of Palestinians as the ink to write international law have zero authority to define genocide, terrorist, self-defence, resistance, proportionality.”
She called for creating spaces “culturally unsafe” for Zionists and defended Hamas terrorists who infiltrated Israel on October 7, 2023 and slaughtered 1,200 Jews. The butchery has been described as the worst onslaught on Jews since the Holocaust.
She refused to acknowledge the murder of Israelis, and one day after the devastating October 7 attack, she posted on her Facebook profile a picture of a Hamas terrorist in a hang-glider, depicting a method the terror group used to launch its attack. She claimed at the time she was unaware of the killings.
Soon after the October 7 massacre, Abdel-Fattah said that she “does not see Hamas as a terrorist organization,” and that the attack on southern Israel was inevitable after “every avenue of peaceful resistance” had been shut down.
In October 2024 she said, “The goal is decolonisation and the end of this murderous Zionist colony.”
The Australian Daily Telegraph reported Abdel-Fattah once wrote: “To hell with you all. Every last Zionist. May you never know a second’s peace in your sadistic miserable lives.”
Apologized!
The new board said in offering its apology:
“Intellectual and artistic freedom is a powerful human right. Our goal is to uphold it, and in this instance, Adelaide Festival Corporation fell well short.”
Okay, one can make a case for separating politics from free speech through art. So, how about a statement along these lines:
“We deplore and abhor the statements that Randa Abdel-Fattah has made about Jews, Zionism, and Israel and totally disavow them. Inviting her to the festival does not imply that we support her ugly antisemitism to any degree.
“But we support the concept of separating politics from art and we hope our valued Jewish community in Australia, Israel and around the world understand our decision,”
But apologize?
The previous board that banned Abdel-Fatah said, in its own statement, it had disinvited Abdel-Fattah from the writers’ week because given her past statements, “it would not be culturally sensitive to include her in the event so soon after Bondi.”
Talk about tip-toeing language: “Culturally insensitive?” How about obscene? Or indecent? Or vulgar?
Moreover, “so soon after Bondi” implies that it would be acceptable to include her along with her hate, say, a year from now, or maybe two.
While one can argue that we need to separate speech, no matter how hateful, from art, we cannot disregard that Abdel-Fattah’s ugly rhetoric breeds Bondi Beach tragedies. As stated many times, words matter.
And while the “appeasement” board apparently felt guilty for “the harm” it caused Abdel-Fattah, it cannot ignore that by reinviting her, it implies endorsement of her views. No matter how much it might protest, such a conclusion is inevitable and unavoidable.
Remember, this controversy comes only a month after the tragedy and after the country’s lawmakers committed themselves to adopting laws to protect not just Jews but other minorities from such hate.
Among the writers who boycotted the festival was the black Pulitzer Prize winner Percival Everett who has written so powerfully against racism. Question: Would he have boycotted the event if the festival had banned a writer who made similar ugly racist remarks about blacks?
But the above is not the saddest part of this story. Here comes gold-plated hypocrisy.
In a February 6, 2024 letter, Abdel-Fattah and nine other academicians asked the board to disinvite Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times columnist, who is Jewish, because they found one of his columns insensitive and troubling.
Instead of having him at the conference, arrangements were made for Friedman to join discussions online but “scheduling issues” prevented his participation, the board explained.
There was no outcry; no condemnations of censorship; not one other writer boycotted the festival.
Friedman, in the respective column, compared the Middle East crisis to the animal kingdom. He expressed regret for the metaphor, stating, “If invoking a metaphor or image alienates and angers part of my audience, I know I used the wrong metaphor…I would never want to leave anyone feeling insulted even if I hit the mark with others.”
Australia conducted a National Day of Mourning on January 22 to remember those who lost their lives on that fateful day in December.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, spoke at the event but, sadly, he did not apologize for the action of the Adelaide Arts Festival Board.
Yes, that Bondi Beach, the one in Australia where 15 Jews were slaughtered by two gunmen —father and son reportedly inspired by ISIS — on Chanukah December 14 last year.
Remember how Australians grieved, cried, and said they did not have words to express their outrage along with condolences to the Jewish people not only in Australia but the world.
Well, for some in Australia officialdom, bereavement lasted all of 30 days.
On January 16, the board of directors of the Adelaide Arts Festival apologized — focus on “apologized” — to Palestinian Australian lawyer, novelist, and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah, after disinviting her from an event because of her support for Hamas, endorsement of violence against Israel, and calling for the elimination of the Jewish state.
Apologized!
This year’s event was cancelled because some 180 other authors from throughout the world refused to participate after Abdel-Fattah was disinvited.
All members of the board except one that had banned her resigned and a new board invited her back.
In its statement, the new board said it was apologizing “for the harm the Adelaide Festival Corporation has caused her.”
To fully understand this outrage, consider some of what Abdel-Fattah has said about Jews and Israel:
In March 2024, she posted on X: “Armed struggle is a moral and legal right of the colonised and brutalised… Western governments which use the blood of Palestinians as the ink to write international law have zero authority to define genocide, terrorist, self-defence, resistance, proportionality.”
She called for creating spaces “culturally unsafe” for Zionists and defended Hamas terrorists who infiltrated Israel on October 7, 2023 and slaughtered 1,200 Jews. The butchery has been described as the worst onslaught on Jews since the Holocaust.
She refused to acknowledge the murder of Israelis, and one day after the devastating October 7 attack, she posted on her Facebook profile a picture of a Hamas terrorist in a hang-glider, depicting a method the terror group used to launch its attack. She claimed at the time she was unaware of the killings.
Soon after the October 7 massacre, Abdel-Fattah said that she “does not see Hamas as a terrorist organization,” and that the attack on southern Israel was inevitable after “every avenue of peaceful resistance” had been shut down.
In October 2024 she said, “The goal is decolonisation and the end of this murderous Zionist colony.”
The Australian Daily Telegraph reported Abdel-Fattah once wrote: “To hell with you all. Every last Zionist. May you never know a second’s peace in your sadistic miserable lives.”
Apologized!
The new board said in offering its apology:
“Intellectual and artistic freedom is a powerful human right. Our goal is to uphold it, and in this instance, Adelaide Festival Corporation fell well short.”
Okay, one can make a case for separating politics from free speech through art. So, how about a statement along these lines:
“We deplore and abhor the statements that Randa Abdel-Fattah has made about Jews, Zionism, and Israel and totally disavow them. Inviting her to the festival does not imply that we support her ugly antisemitism to any degree.
“But we support the concept of separating politics from art and we hope our valued Jewish community in Australia, Israel and around the world understand our decision,”
But apologize?
The previous board that banned Abdel-Fatah said, in its own statement, it had disinvited Abdel-Fattah from the writers’ week because given her past statements, “it would not be culturally sensitive to include her in the event so soon after Bondi.”
Talk about tip-toeing language: “Culturally insensitive?” How about obscene? Or indecent? Or vulgar?
Moreover, “so soon after Bondi” implies that it would be acceptable to include her along with her hate, say, a year from now, or maybe two.
While one can argue that we need to separate speech, no matter how hateful, from art, we cannot disregard that Abdel-Fattah’s ugly rhetoric breeds Bondi Beach tragedies. As stated many times, words matter.
And while the “appeasement” board apparently felt guilty for “the harm” it caused Abdel-Fattah, it cannot ignore that by reinviting her, it implies endorsement of her views. No matter how much it might protest, such a conclusion is inevitable and unavoidable.
Remember, this controversy comes only a month after the tragedy and after the country’s lawmakers committed themselves to adopting laws to protect not just Jews but other minorities from such hate.
Among the writers who boycotted the festival was the black Pulitzer Prize winner Percival Everett who has written so powerfully against racism. Question: Would he have boycotted the event if the festival had banned a writer who made similar ugly racist remarks about blacks?
But the above is not the saddest part of this story. Here comes gold-plated hypocrisy.
In a February 6, 2024 letter, Abdel-Fattah and nine other academicians asked the board to disinvite Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times columnist, who is Jewish, because they found one of his columns insensitive and troubling.
Instead of having him at the conference, arrangements were made for Friedman to join discussions online but “scheduling issues” prevented his participation, the board explained.
There was no outcry; no condemnations of censorship; not one other writer boycotted the festival.
Friedman, in the respective column, compared the Middle East crisis to the animal kingdom. He expressed regret for the metaphor, stating, “If invoking a metaphor or image alienates and angers part of my audience, I know I used the wrong metaphor…I would never want to leave anyone feeling insulted even if I hit the mark with others.”
Australia conducted a National Day of Mourning on January 22 to remember those who lost their lives on that fateful day in December.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, spoke at the event but, sadly, he did not apologize for the action of the Adelaide Arts Festival Board.
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