The free speech debate has flared up yet again, in two very different ways.
Adelaide Writers’ Week, currently under way, has been engulfed in controversy over the participation of two Palestinian writers: Susan Abulhawa, the author of grossly offensive tweets about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Mohammed El-Kurd, who criticises Israel in language viewed by many as antisemitic.
Meanwhile, in Sydney, two “socialist activist” students – who were part of a mob that last year broke up a meeting at the University of Sydney to hear former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull – were suspended for behaviour in breach of the university’s code of conduct.
Louise Adler, the former head of Melbourne University Publishing and director of Writers’ Week, has defended the participation of the Palestinian activists on freedom of speech grounds. Morry Schwartz, another publisher who funds a stable of relentlessly left-wing periodicals, called for her resignation. So far, Adler has stood her ground. She is right to do so.
Adler does not condone the language or endorse the opinions of the Palestinian writers. With Australia strongly supporting Ukraine against the Russian invasion, the organisers showed particularly poor judgment in inviting someone who abuses Zelensky. Nevertheless, invited they were; once they are on the bill, to remove them could only be seen as an act of censorship.
Read the article by George Brandis in The Sydney Morning Herald.