Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa labels Writers’ Week protests a ‘smear campaign’

Controversial Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa has called protests over her appearance at Adelaide Writers’ Week a “smear campaign” while labelling a murder victim “human garbage”.

Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa, who is set to appear at Adelaide Festival Writers’ Week, has claimed she has been subjected to a “smear campaign” after calling a Jewish-American civilian killed in Israel “human garbage”.

As Festival artistic director Ruth MacKenzie welcomed Premier Peter Malinauskas’s decision not to cut funding for Writers’ Week over the novelist’s attendance, Abulhawa continued her controversial Twitter comments.

Elan Ganeles, 26, was ambushed and shot near the Dead Sea on Monday while visiting Israel for a friend’s wedding.

“Privileged white man leaves US to violently colonise another people, gets killed by the people he’s robbing & oppressing,” Abulhawa tweeted on Tuesday.

“And y’all are upset over this human garbage.”

On Friday, Abulhawa re-posted her remarks, saying they had been used to continue an attack on her.

“This post has gotten a lot of attention to bolster the smear campaign against me,” she said. “Palestinians are literally the only people in the world who are expected to sympathise with (or even love) those who kill, rob, maim and destroy our families, our lives, and our country. I do not.”

Susan Abulhawa, a Palestinian-American writer and human rights activist, speaks at a 2014 Palestine Festival of Literature event Picture: Rob Stothard/Getty Images

Meanwhile, Ms Mackenzie said she welcomed the Premier’s remarks that he considered withdrawing funding for Writers’ Week, but that he had decided against it.

“I have to applaud the Premier for the honesty and transparency with which he has shared his journey on this,” she said.

“I love him for saying this, and of course, I agree with his conclusion.”

Ms Mackenzie said that she doubted Mr Malinauskas had the time to read 158 authors’ books to decide which of them should be invited to Writers’ Week.

“He is right to come to the conclusion that you have to trust the curators of the Adelaide Festival and Writers’ Week.”

Defending the decision to invite Abulhawa, Ms Mackenzie said that people had to “face that this is a complicated world”.

“Freedom of expression is a luxury that we have here in a democratic country like Australia that we can’t take for granted and we certainly can’t abuse.

“She (Abulhawa) has been invited because of the quality of her written work, of her novels, not because of her social media.

“We cannot … take responsibility for someone else’s Twitter account.”

This year’s festival, which opened Friday and runs until March 19, has already reached 91 per cent of its box office target, with 48,452 tickets worth $4.7m tickets sold.