Should Jews start wearing yellow stars again?

I did like the Jewish comedian on Instagram, who said: “Hey, y’all going to so much trouble to find our names … would it be easier if we just wore yellow stars?”

I’m guessing this will surprise nobody, but the Adelaide Writers’ Festival will host not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six … okay, look, the program is positively stuffed with guests whose views on the conflict in the Middle East are frothingly anti-Israel.

Which is all well and good, but where is the balance?

The situation on the ground is awful. All sensible people want a ceasefire. Innocent Palestinian are dying every day, just as innocent Jews died, when Hamas terrorists stormed across the border on 7 October.

A brokered peace is the only solution. How are we going to get there? By hosting wildly anti-Israel rants, after which we can all congratulate ourselves on our most successful love-in?

Hate-on.

That isprobably a better term.

Question: how does this – the deliberate stoking of division in the Australian community – advance the course of peace?

I’m not talking about the Middle East. I mean right here.

Tracey Whiting is chair of the Adelaide Festival, which will platform mainly anti-Israel speakers.

So, who will speak in Adelaide?

They’ve got Ilan Pappe, who says Israel is involved in ethnic cleansing.

They’ve got Bob Carr, who makes no secret of his position.

They’ve got Avi Shlaim (Israel is an apartheid state, etc).

They’ve got Nathan Thrall, author of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: A Palestinian Story. They’ve got Tareq Baconi, who is on the board of The Palestinian Policy Network … they’ve also got Ben Saul, who just adored the anti-Israel boycott of the Sydney Festival and on it goes, and look, you could complain, of course – the new chair of the festival is Tracey Whiting, who also sits on the board of the Australian National Museum - but it’s probably it’s going to be the same at every writer’s festival this year, as hatred spreads where art once lived.

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Now to some of the language going around the Australian book world …

I’ve seen Jews accused of “plotting” and I’ve seen posts where groups of Jews are said to be “using their power and influence” in the media to have people fired …

Guys, please.

These are anti-Semitic tropes. You can wrap in as much language about “Zionism” and “Israel” as you like, but it’s textbook anti-Semitism.

The Jews are rich and crafty and they wield influence in the corridors of power because they have money …

Like many readers, I’ve also seen the list of 600 Jews going around …

Wait …

There is a list of Jews are going around? My word there is. Lists of Jewish businesses, too. You can hardly blame the local community for being a little nervous. They’re also keeping a sense of humour about it. I did like the Jewish comedian on Instagram, who said: “Hey, y’all going to so much trouble to find our names … would it be easier if we just wore yellow stars?”

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It’s not strictly a literary festival, but there are real concerns that anti-Israel fervour will in March overrun one of Australia’s most important cultural events, All About Women at the Opera House.

The festival, due to be held in March, will host Clementine Ford, Jan Fran, and Randa Abdel-Fattah, all of whom are going hard for Palestine.

Which - again - is absolutely fine, but where is the balance?

Also, is there some kind of competition among Australian influencers to find the most appalling, blood-soaked images of the dead and the wounded and post them to their social media accounts? It’s grotesque. I get that it’s mainly a public relations war on these shores, but to what end? It has fostered fear and suspicion in the Australian community. This isn’t constructive; it’s pure malice. Friends are losing friends, and going after each other’s jobs. I’m not sure how it helps the Palestinian people, or puts anyone on the road to peace, but maybe it’s follower counts that they're actually after.

Superstar crime writer Garry Disher will be at the Whitsundays Writers Festival.

If Adelaide is not your thing where else could you could go? Well, Garry Disher has just been added to the speaker list for the Whitsundays Writers Festival in September.

It’s at Airlie Beach. They will also have Shankari Chandran, the Miles Franklin winner.

It’s been in hiatus for seven years, so it’s fair to say they’re pretty excited about being back on the stacked list of literary festivals. Further details are available at their website.

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Last week I mentioned that the new novella by the late Charmian Clift will be released around the same time as a Norwegian TV series, So Long Marianne.

I’ve since been told that an Australian documentary devoted entirely to Clift’s life and work of will be released this year.

The film, titled Charmian Clift – Life Burns High, will be produced and directed by Rachel Lane and co-produced by Sue Milliken. It’s almost finished and will screen on Foxtel. The timing couldn’t be better, just a year after what would have been Clift’s 100th birthday.

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The mail about voluntary assisted dying just keeps pouring in. Last week I made the mistake of saying I hadn’t had any mail the from anyone who opposed assisted dying for the fully compos mentis.

Well, I have now!

Mollie Sullivan wrote to say that she suspects “this may be a social trend set in train by the boomer generation with unhappy experiences of caring for aged parents, which is very different from the experiences of earlier generations, whose older relatives died at an earlier, and more convenient age.”

Sullivan says the idea “that older people facing dementia have an inalienable right to kill themselves or receive the assistance of others to end their life at a place, time and manner of their choosing is gaining traction.

“I understand the drive for self-determination and the fear of mental decline that sits behind this conviction … However, with more than half a century of experience (in the caring professions) I can categorically say that I do not support euthanasia as a suitable or acceptable response to the challenges of ageing.

“I am far too busy talking positively with older people, their families and the staff who support them. Our conversations focus on personal goals and quality of life aspirations. We do not spend a lot of time talking about death.”

I also heard from a doctor with experience in palliative and geriatric medicine who said she had seen situations where family members “are keen to get it all over with, to relieve themselves of their own distress”.

“Another very common problem in geriatric medicine is coercion by family or others in order to get access to a vulnerable person’s assets,” she notes.

“ It is not at all difficult to see how this would translate into coercion in the setting of assisted suicide.”

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This week’s pages: how to keep things red-hot between the sheets, even when you’ve been together a while; Antonella Gambotto-Burke reviews a very cute Japanese novel; Diane Stubbings reviews a new book about the sister of Stella Miles Franklin; plus I talk to the author of a new book about the missionary who scooped little Lorna Cubillo up from an Aboriginal camp and put her in the back of a truck, bound for a children’s home in Darwin.

Gurindji woman, Lorna Cubillo, 76, who was taken as a child and put in the old Retta Dixon home at Bagot reserve. Now comes a new biography of the missionary who scooped her up.

Some readers will know that Cubillo later sued the Commonwealth in a Stolen Generations test case - and she lost. I wonder if she’d lose today? I found the book, Placed In Our Care, rather challenging and perhaps even wrongheaded, not in spirit, but in terms of its conclusions, which is no excuse for me to withhold coverage. You can decide for yourselves whether it’s a worthwhile addition to your bookshelves, I’m sure. You can talk to me about these issues, that book, or indeed anything at [e-mail]. Enjoy.