The Advertiser pulls staff from Breakfast with Papers event at Adelaide Festival
Following controversy surrounding the inclusion of two authors with “hateful” views in the Writers’ Week program, The Advertiser has pulled staff from a key festival event.
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The Advertiser will continue to support the broader Adelaide Festival cultural program but has withdrawn its staff from the Breakfast With Papers event in light of the publication’s stance on the hateful views of two participants in the festival’s Writers’ Week.
The publication has taken a firm position on the inclusion of Palestinian-American writer Susan Abulhawa and Palestinian poet Mohammed El-Kurd, both of whom have expressed anti-Semitic and factually incorrect views.
Abulhawa has repeatedly attacked Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky while El-Kurd has repeatedly compared Israel to the Nazi regime.
Advertiser Editor Gemma Jones said discussions with Festival chief executive Kath Mainland and artistic director Ruth Mackenzie had been constructive.
“The broader festival program is uncontroversial and important to the cultural life of Adelaide,” Ms Jones said.
“The Advertiser and Adelaide Festival have had a long and proud partnership.
“The Adelaide Festival has advised that The Advertiser was not directly supporting Writers’ Week under a current partnership.
“Notwithstanding that, The Advertiser will withdraw its staff from the Festival’s Breakfast With Papers program. The Advertiser will not feature in any promotion material for Breakfast with Papers or the Writers’ Week.”
Breakfast With Papers is a daily morning event during the festival in which a panel discusses news of the day.
Ms Jones said The Advertiser had publicly called for Writers’ Week director Louise Adler to resign.
“The views of the two writers in question are repugnant and not grounded in facts,” she said.
“The Advertiser has stood against anti-Semitism in South Australia.
“In the case of the invasion of Ukraine, The Advertiser raised almost two hundred thousand dollars to help refugees settle in Adelaide.
“The Advertiser’s support of the cultural component of the festival remains unchanged.”
Abulhawa has been an outspoken critic of Zelensky, calling him a “depraved Zionist with a house on stolen Palestinian land”, a “clown who is trying to ignite World War III” and “mad and far more dangerous than (Russian President Vladimir) Putin”.
She has also described Israel as “the only ‘nation’ that systematically kidnaps and tortures children daily”.
El-Kurd has described Zionists on Twitter as being “sadistic” for setting fires in Palestine, and accused Zionists of having “an unquenchable thirst for Palestinian blood and land”.
He has likened Israel to the Nazi regime whose genocide led to the creation of the Jewish state.
His tweets have been denounced as anti-Semitic by the Jewish Anti-Defamation League.
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