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Lawyers representing Randa Abdel-Fattah have threatened legal action against South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas over the Palestinian writer’s involvement The largest free literary festival in the country.
this The commotion begins On January 8, the board of the Adelaide Festival, which runs Adelaide Writers Week, announced it had rescinded Ms Abdel-Fattah’s invitation to participate in the show. The board determined that it was “incompatible with cultural sensitivity for Bundy to continue programming her so soon after and during this unprecedented time.”
anti-semitic terrorist attacks at bondi beach Last month’s goal was Jewish event left Resulting in 15 deaths and dozens of injuries. Board members said there was no suggestion that Ms Abdel-Fattah or her book had “any connection to the tragedy”.
But the decision sparked a major controversy, followed by the resignation of the festival’s board of directors, the withdrawal of more than 180 screenwriters, the withdrawal of at least one sponsor, and the eventual cancellation of the event.
The Palestinian-Australian author and academic took legal action after Mr Malinaskas made the comments at a press conference on Tuesday. Ms Abdel-Fattah accused him of suggesting she was an “extreme terrorist sympathizer” and linking her to terror attacks.
When asked to justify his support for Ms Adebele-Fata’s withdrawal from the festival, the politician described a hypothetical scenario. He asked reporters: “Can you imagine if a far-right Zionist walked into a mosque in Sydney and killed 15 people?”
“Can you imagine that, as prime minister of this state, I would actively support far-right Zionists participating in Writers’ Week and spewing hateful speech about Islamic people? Of course I wouldn’t, but in this case the opposite happened and I wouldn’t support that, and I think that’s a reasonable position for me to take. It’s a view that I believe in,” he said.
Ms Abdel-Fattah said in a statement social mediaher legal team issued a formal notice of concern to the Prime Minister under the country’s defamation laws. She said his public comments about her were “vicious and personal attacks.”
“In the past week since I was canceled by the Adelaide Festival Committee, South [Australian] Governor Peter Malinauskas has made many public statements about me and my character,” she wrote.
“We have never met and he has never attempted to contact me. Yesterday, Mr. Malinauskas went even further. He issued a public statement implying that I am an extremist terrorist sympathizer and directly linking me to the Bundy atrocity. This was a vicious personal attack by the South’s highest public official against me, a private citizen.” Australia. This is defamatory and scares me.
“Enough is enough. I am a human being, not a punching bag. My lawyers have today served Peter Malinauskas with a notice of concern under the Defamation Act and this is his chance to undo some of the harm done and stop the beating.”
Malinauskas said he did not know if he had received a notice of concern (a formal written warning under defamation law). He defended his actions, saying: “Every step of this journey, all my words and actions, have been grounded in compassion and the desire for people to treat each other civilly, and people will be able to make their own judgments about what I say.”