Author and academic Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah will be featured in two parts of the Sydney Writers’ Festival program in 2026.
A statement from festival chief executive Brooke Webb and artistic director Ann Mossop said Dr Abdel-Fattah is a “significant Sydney writer”, adding the festival holds “freedom of expression as a core value”.
The announcement comes after Dr Abdel-Fattah was uninvited from Adelaide Writers’ Week, part of the Adelaide Festival, last month, after pressure from the South Australian government.
The controversial decision led to a large number of planned speakers boycotting the event, the resignation of the Adelaide Festival’s entire board, and the event’s eventual cancellation.
Posts from Adelaide Writers’ Week earlier this year. Image: Instagram
Randa Abdel-Fattah to appear at Sydney Writers’ Festival
Adelaide Writers’ Week uninvited Dr Abdel-Fattah because of her previous comments that Zionists “have no claim or right to cultural safety,” a sentiment they found especially sensitive in light of the December 2025 Bondi mass shootings.
Abdel-Fattah also made a 2024 social media post, saying: “The goal is decolonisation and the end of this murderous Zionist colony”, with a video claiming that Israel’s existence depended on violence against Palestinians.
In a statement in response to questions from ABC News about that comment, she said her “post made clear that I oppose the espousing of Zionist ideology [but] NEVER the unsafety of Jews”.
Dr Abdel-Fattah has been invited to attend Adelaide Writers’ Week next year.
The Sydney Writers’ Festival statement on Wednesday said they respected “that public figures and members of the community may hold different views” to Dr Abdel-Fattah.
“A festival like ours, which holds freedom of expression as a core value, is not in the business of cancelling or censoring writers.”