Jewish leaders have called for Clementine Ford to be banned from Adelaide Writers’ Week

Peter Malinauskas says he will not be a premier who “engages in censorship at arts festivals” after Jewish leaders call for activist Clementine Ford to be banned from Writer’s Week for doxxing.

Jewish leaders are calling for activist Clementine Ford to be banned from the Adelaide Festival’s Writers’ Week after she disseminated a link to the details of 600 Jewish artists and creatives, resulting in some receiving death threats.

The leaders include Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dr Dvir Abramovich, who said the festival had become a “hate fest and no-go zone for Jews and Israelis”.

It is the second consecutive year Writers’ Week has faced backlash over allegedly antisemitic views of participants.

Premier Peter Malinauskus also doubled down on not “censoring” these views.

He told The Advertiser that while he did not share Ford’s views “on a number of issues”, he would not be a “premier that engages in censorship at arts festivals”.

He repeated this stance on ABC Radio on Monday morning.

Author Clementine Ford. Picture: Supplied

Dr Abramovich, whose cousin was killed in an August attack in Tel Aviv and whose family was forced to hide from Hamas terrorists, said the Festival’s international reputation “has now been torn to shreds”.

“Let’s be clear: I, as an Australian Jew, would not feel safe at this year’s gathering,” he said.

“By putting out the welcome mat to a host of notorious anti-Israel speakers with a troubling track record of abhorrent statements, the Adelaide Festival has afforded them a degree of legitimacy and credibility that is unwarranted and has given them a mainstream space to further promote their extreme antisemitic views and conspiracy theories.

“At a time when antisemitism in this country has reached a frightening historic high, their inclusion will only increase the possibility of further isolation, violence and harassment of Australian Jews.”

Ford is scheduled for one session at Writers’ Week, which falls under the Adelaide Festival banner, to talk about her anti-marriage book, but her appearance has come under fire for her role in sharing the link to details of 600 Jewish creatives from a WhatsApp group.

Clementine Ford at a Palestine rally in January. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Valeriu Campan

The Advertiser is not suggesting that Ford took part in any abuse or harassment of them.

The Australian has reported Ford, in her social media posts, has described Zionists as “monsters”, “sadists” and “ghouls”, and Israel as a “disgusting”, “evil” “oppression machine”.

Norman Schueler, who is the government and public liaison for the Jewish Community Council of South Australia, said Ford should not be part of the program.

“The nature of what she is expressing clearly is scant with the truth and obviously is an absolute disregard for the Jewish faith,” he said.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim agreed Ford should be excluded from the festival’s line-up.

Writer Clementine Ford.

“The doxing behaviour focusing on the Jewish community that Clementine Ford and others have been engaged in has been condemned by a wide range of people including the Prime Minister, who has announced that conduct of that nature will soon be criminalised,” he said.

“It’s perverse for the South Australian government to be wasting money to subsidise speakers like this.

“People are becoming sick of funding cultural events like Adelaide Writers’ Week which have been hijacked to indulge extremist agendas and conceits that are remote from the lives of most Australians.”

Controversial writer Susan Abulhawa is speaking at Writers’ Week. Picture Kelly Barnes

Last year the festival came under fire over the inclusion of Palestinian poet Mohammed El-Kurd, who had 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”.

There were also calls for boycotts of Palestinian-American writer Susan Abulhawa, who had called Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky a “depraved Zionist with a house on stolen Palestinian land”.

None of Ford’s posts have made calls for violence against Jewish people.

Responding to her role in disseminating the leak, Ford said attempts to call her actions antisemitic were “spin ignoring of course that anti-Zionist Jewish people were involved in collating this info into this link”. She said criticism of her was “an attempt to distract and deflect from the bigoted rhetoric and organised aggression enacted by many in the Zionist group chat against activists, artists, academics and anyone who speaks up for Palestine”.

The Advertiser contacted Adelaide Writers’ Week director Louise Adler, Adelaide Festival artistic director Ruth Mackenzie and chief executive Kath Mainland. Each was asked if they were aware of Ford’s comments.

None of Ford’s posts have called for violence against Jewish People. Picture Emma Brasier

The festival responded with a statement from Ms Mainland, who said Ford would be appearing in one session to discuss her latest book “about the institution of marriage”.

“She is one in a program of 202 outstanding writers,” Ms Mainland said.

“Adelaide Writers’ Week is curated by director Louise Adler AM who extends invitations to writers on the basis of their published books, not on the content of their social media accounts.”

The Advertiser attempted to contact Ford by phone, email and social media.