Melbourne Writers Festival bans all audience questions
In an extraordinary move, organisers will not allow any questions at all sessions, regardless of the topic, after festivals in Perth and Cairns were disrupted by anti-Israel protests.
The Melbourne Writers Festival has banned all questions from the audience at all of this year’s sessions, regardless of the topic.
The extraordinary move was revealed in notes provided to moderators, who generally take questions from the audience at the end of each of the sessions.
The notes say “we’re not including audience Q & As this year” with the “safety and comfort of all artists and audiences in mind.”
The move comes after writers’ festivals in Perth and Cairns were disrupted by anti-Israel protesters.
One moderator, who did not wish to be named, said: “The way I read it, no audience member at any session gets the chance to ask anything of any writer in case somebody brings up Palestine.”
Anti-Israel groups, some of which are deeply anti-Semitic in rhetoric, are actively bullying writers festivals, in an attempt to have Jewish writers and performers cancelled.
Jewish singer Deborah Conway, who released her memoir this year, was targeted at Perth, and in Cairns, both of which insisted on her right to appear.
The Newcastle Writers Festival is under intense pressure from Newcastle Mums for Palestine to cancel her, but is standing firm.
“We also had feedback about the inclusion of (pro-Palestinian activist) Clementine Ford,” said director, Rosemarie Milsom, in a recent letter to critics.
“We will not be asking either writer to leave the program.”
In response, the group said her response “reeks of white feminism (and) privilege.”
Some of the group’s members are now planning to attend the festival wearing the keffiyeh, although one said: “I genuinely think if someone wears a keffiyeh … they will be kicked out.”
The Melbourne Writers Festival ban on audience participation doesn’t appear to extend to clothing.
A writer who has been invited to attend, who also did not wish to be named, said: “There will be scarves at every event … they’ll be chanting and carrying on. You can count on it. But nobody will be saying anything about girls raped and killed at the music festival, or about any other war. It’s all about Israel.”
The move comes after the deputy chair of the Melbourne Writers Festival board, Leslie Reti, quit ahead of the program launch, saying it contained “historically untrue and deeply offensive material.”
He was aggrieved by an event planned by Aboriginal writer Mykaela Saunders, whose session will discuss “75 years of Israeli settler colonial dispossession.”
He felt the 5000 year history of Jews in Israel was being erased.
In the letter to moderators, the Melbourne Writers Festival said: “Due to audience feedback from last year about events running to time, and with the safety and comfort of all artists and audiences in mind, we’re not including audience Q & As this year.”
It stressed the need for events to run on time, and continued: “Once we hand the
microphones over to audience members, sessions invariably run over time.
“We’ve deliberately selected the most qualified and experienced moderators to interview our guests –
that’s you! – and would prefer that the full hour is dedicated to your questions.”
It added: “Based on what we’re seeing in the current climate, we know that artists are being asked by the public to comment on current events that they may not wish to comment on or may feel uncomfortable commenting on, so we would like to empower each author and moderator to steer the ship of their own conversation to areas they want to discuss, whatever that may be.”
The festival has been contacted for comment.
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