Published: 11 April 2024
Last updated: 11 April 2024
The State Library of NSW will not review whether pro-Palestinian advocate Randa Abdel-Fattah is suitable to judge this year’s Multicultural NSW Award, after questions as to whether she would be biased if faced with Jewish authors.
Last week Senator Dave Sharma called for Abdel-Fattah, a writer and Macquarie University academic to be removed from the panel of judges for the award, after she shared with with her 30,000 Instagram followers a link to a website that had doxed the some 600 Jewish creatives from a private WhatsApp group.
“Not only must serious doubts exist about the impartiality of Dr Abdel-Fattah as a judge,” Senator Sharma wrote to NSW Premier Chris Minns on March 28. “How would she fairly assess the literary merit of a work by a Jewish Australian author?”
The Jewish Council of Australia defended Abdel-Fattah, arguing she had made a clear distinction between Zionism and Jews.
This week a spokesperson for the State Library of NSW, which administers the award, told The Jewish Independent that the 32 judges were appointed last August and judging had already occurred.
“The judging for this year’s awards has concluded,” the spokesperson said.
The library did not address whether Abdel-Fattah would be appointed again in future years following the criticism.
