\u201cThe arts have allegedly become \u2018unsafe\u2019 and artists are a danger to the community\u2019s psycho-social wellbeing,\u201d she wrote in an open letter published by The Guardian newspaper.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut let\u2019s be clear, the routine invocation of \u2018safety\u2019 is code for \u2018I don\u2019t want to hear your opinion\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this instance, it appears to apply only to a Palestinian invitee.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Culturally sensitive\u2019 <\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s premier annual cultural event, which lures artists from around the world, unleashed the storm last week when it told Abdel-Fattah it did not \u201cwish to proceed\u201d with her appearance.<\/p>\n
Board members had decided it would not be \u201cculturally sensitive\u201d to include Abdel-Fattah so soon after the December 14 mass shooting at a Jewish festival on Bondi Beach, which killed 15 people, it said.<\/p>\n
Abdel-Fattah has faced criticism over some past statements including a post on X in October 2024 saying: \u201cThe goal is decolonisation and the end of this murderous Zionist colony.\u201d<\/p>\n
The festival said Tuesday it regretted the distress its decision had caused to the audience, artists, writers, corporate partners, the government and its own staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also apologise to Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah for how the decision was represented and reiterate this is not about identity or dissent but rather a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression in our nation following Australia\u2019s worst terror attack in history,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Abdel-Fattah has described the festival decision as a \u201cblatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism\u201d.<\/p>\n
-Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe arts have allegedly become \u2018unsafe\u2019 and artists are a danger to the community\u2019s psycho-social wellbeing,\u201d she wrote…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,4765,442,1135,13851,137557,7972,35594,20703,45134,137559,8231,5131,42,13620,27612,43,1118,1523,21485,137560,137561,7819,45608,40,38,41,39,137558,6123,40555],"class_list":["post-231429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-annual","tag-arts","tag-australian","tag-author","tag-barring","tag-beach","tag-bondi","tag-cancelled","tag-citing","tag-disinviting","tag-event","tag-festival","tag-headlines","tag-leading","tag-mass","tag-news","tag-of","tag-over","tag-palestinian","tag-palestinianaustralian","tag-sensitivities","tag-shooting","tag-sparking","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uproar","tag-while","tag-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}