South Australia's Premier Peter Malinauskas is facing a potential defamation lawsuit from Palestinian writer and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah over comments made about her during the Adelaide Writers' Week controversy.
Abdel-Fattah, who was cancelled from the event following public statements supporting her removal by Malinauskas, has accused the premier of making "harmful" remarks about her. She claims she never met with him and that he made public statements suggesting she was an "extremist terrorist sympathiser", linking her to the Bondi atrocity.
Malinauskas had previously justified his support for Abdel-Fattah's removal by using a hypothetical analogy, comparing it to supporting a far-right Zionist speaker in a mosque. The premier maintained that he has "basic human decency" and will not escalate tensions in the country by expressing opinions disrespectfully.
However, Abdel-Fattah has now instructed lawyer Michael Bradley to take action against Malinauskas over what she calls defamatory comments. This development comes as four members of the festival board resigned following public backlash over the event's cancellation.
Abdel-Fattah, who was cancelled from the event following public statements supporting her removal by Malinauskas, has accused the premier of making "harmful" remarks about her. She claims she never met with him and that he made public statements suggesting she was an "extremist terrorist sympathiser", linking her to the Bondi atrocity.
Malinauskas had previously justified his support for Abdel-Fattah's removal by using a hypothetical analogy, comparing it to supporting a far-right Zionist speaker in a mosque. The premier maintained that he has "basic human decency" and will not escalate tensions in the country by expressing opinions disrespectfully.
However, Abdel-Fattah has now instructed lawyer Michael Bradley to take action against Malinauskas over what she calls defamatory comments. This development comes as four members of the festival board resigned following public backlash over the event's cancellation.
. Like, dude, it's a mosque, not a war zone 
. Comparing someone to an extremist just to make yourself feel better doesn't fly, and now this woman is suing you for defamatory comments? Good luck with that 
. I'm sure it'll be a real laugh in court when he has to explain what "basic human decency" means to the judge 
. And four more festival board members are gone because of his ego trip? More power to them, I guess 
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! So Randa Abdel-Fattah gets cancelled from Adelaide Writers' Week and now Peter Malinauskas is getting roasted for his comments? I get it, some of us felt he went too far, but come on, man... 
And what's with the analogy to a far-right Zionist speaker in a mosque? That was a major misstep, dude 
. But at the same time, I get why Abdel-Fattah is upset - hurtful comments don't go unnoticed, no matter who says them 
. And four festival board members quitting? 
Yeah, that's some messy stuff right there. Guess we'll just have to wait and see how this whole thing plays out... 
. As a parent, I want my kids to learn about the importance of respect and empathy, not how to be hurtful or divisive.
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. Like, who makes up their minds and then gets called out on it? And to make things worse, the whole Adelaide Writers' Week thing was a total mess 
. I mean, I get that people have different opinions, but come on! Comparing someone's removal from an event to supporting a far-right speaker in a mosque? That's just low 
. And now Randa is taking action against the Premier, which is totally fair 
. It's like, if you're gonna say something, own it or don't say it at all! 
. Looking at some recent data from the Australian Writers' Festival attendance records, we can see that attendance has been steadily increasing over the past 5 years 
. Fast forward to this year, and it looks like a rough drop-off after the whole Abdel-Fattah debacle 
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. Meanwhile, if we look at some Twitter metrics from last week's #AdeWriterWeek, there were 3x more tweets about Abdel-Fattah than Malinauskas 
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. Meanwhile, a 2022 survey from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that among Palestinians living in Australia, 80% identify as "first-generation" immigrants 
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. And now there's drama about some politicians making comments that are supposed to be neutral but are basically just inflammatory 
. And what's with the hypothetical analogy? That didn't even make sense 
... It's like, he said he had "basic human decency" which is a nice sentiment, but it's hard to know what that means in this context. I'm worried that this whole thing is going to end up being super messy and expensive for everyone involved 
I mean, defamatory comments are a big deal, but it's also crazy how passionate people can get about stuff that doesn't even affect them directly 
I guess it's just another example of how complex these issues are and how hard it is to find common ground.
I mean, we've got to be careful with our words, especially when they're public & have the potential to hurt someone's rep...