Adelaide Festival Finds Conscience for US Columnist, Not Palestinian Academic
Mainstream media wants you to believe the Adelaide Festival heroically resisted calls to 'dump' Thomas Friedman, painting Randa Abdel-Fattah and other academics as attempting censorship. What they conveniently ignore is the blatant hypocrisy. The festival *did* dump Abdel-Fattah herself from the 2024 program over 'cultural sensitivity concerns,' a move South Australia's Premier Peter Malinauskas
'reiterated his support' for. So, criticizing a Palestinian scholar is fine, but critiquing a 'pro-Israel' *New York Times* columnist is a bridge too far for 'free expression'? Friedman, a columnist whose 'pro-Israel' stance has included cheering on invasions and consistently shifting goalposts for peace, represents the very establishment viewpoint that fuels ongoing conflict. Yet, a Palestinian
academic articulating a counter-narrative is deemed too 'sensitive.' One might wonder if 'cultural sensitivity' is just the latest euphemism for censoring voices critical of Western foreign policy and its allies.