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Dr. Randa Abdel Fattah. De-Invited by Association: When Grief Becomes a Pretext and Palestinian Identity a Liability



How Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah Was Silenced in the Name of “Sensitivity”

In a remarkable feat of moral gymnastics, Australia’s literary establishment has once again demonstrated how grief can be weaponised, principles suspended, and Palestinian identity rendered dangerously “inappropriate”—all in the name of cultural sensitivity.

Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah, a respected author, academic, and public intellectual, was quietly de-invited from Adelaide Writers’ Week following the Bondi Junction massacre. Not because she had any connection—real, implied, or imagined—to the atrocity. Not because she endorsed violence. Not because she violated any law or ethical standard.

But because, apparently, the mere presence of a Palestinian Muslim woman who speaks about justice is now considered culturally unsafe during national mourning.

One wonders: unsafe for whom?

The Logic of the Absurd

Festival organisers were careful—almost impressively so—to state that Dr. Abdel-Fattah had nothing to do with the Bondi massacre. And yet, in the same breath, they argued that her participation would not be “culturally sensitive” in the aftermath of the attack.

This raises an unavoidable question:

If she has no connection to the violence, why must she be removed?

The answer is as uncomfortable as it is familiar: because Palestinian voices are now treated as ambient threats—not for what they do, but for what they are presumed to represent.

This is not sensitivity.
This is profiling dressed up as prudence.

Who Is Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah? (For Those Who Suddenly Forgot)

Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah is not a provocateur, nor a fringe figure. She is:

  • A widely published Australian author, best known for novels such as Does My Head Look Big in This?, which has been translated into multiple languages and taught internationally.
  • An academic and sociologist, whose work examines race, Islamophobia, settler colonialism, media narratives, and the lived realities of Muslim and Palestinian communities.
  • A consistent advocate for human rights, free expression, and ethical accountability—values supposedly cherished by literary festivals.

Her latest work, Discipline (2025), is a critical examination of power, punishment, and institutional control. Ironically, its themes now appear to be playing out in real time.

Dr. Abdel-Fattah’s “crime” is not incivility or extremism.
It is clarity.
And clarity, in the current climate, is intolerable.

The Bondi Massacre: Grief as a Censorship Tool

The Bondi attack was horrific. The grief is real. The mourning is legitimate.

But to invoke that tragedy as a reason to silence a Palestinian author—while explicitly admitting she bears no responsibility—reveals something darker:

Grief is acceptable. Context is not.
Violence is condemned. Inquiry is policed.

Somehow, the massacre becomes a moral alibi—not for reflection, but for exclusion.

Had Dr. Abdel-Fattah been a white author with controversial views on foreign policy, would “cultural sensitivity” have demanded her removal?

History answers that question for us.

The Quiet Rule Now in Effect

An unspoken rule is being enforced across Western cultural institutions:

  • Criticise power, but not Israel
  • Mourn victims, but not Palestinians
  • Celebrate diversity, but not dissent
  • Defend free speech, until it becomes inconvenient

Palestinian voices are not banned outright—how gauche that would look. Instead, they are postponed, de-platformed, reconsidered, made inappropriate.

Always politely.
Always bureaucratically.
Always without admitting the real reason.

The Backlash They Didn’t Anticipate

What the organisers may not have anticipated was the response.

Writers withdrew.
Artists protested.
Sponsors reconsidered.

Because even within an increasingly timid cultural sphere, some lines are still too blatant to cross without consequence.

The message many heard was simple and chilling:

If you are Palestinian, your politics are presumed violent.
Your grief is suspicious.
Your presence is negotiable.

Conclusion: This Was Never About Sensitivity

Let us be clear.

This was not about protecting a grieving nation.
It was not about unity.
It was not about safety.

It was about disciplining a narrative.

Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah was not de-invited because of the Bondi massacre.
She was de-invited because Palestinian moral clarity disrupts comfortable silences.

And in our time, nothing is more “insensitive” than refusing to be quiet.


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