The future of a leading Australian arts festival hangs in the balance after former New Zealand premier Jacinda Ardern became the latest prominent figure to pull out in solidarity with a Palestinian writer.
This has absolutely nothing to do with Jacinda Ardern who is just inserting herself into this story.
Many important writers over the last week have pulled out, it’s a non-story that a former politician isn’t attending.
She’s the best PM a neighboring country and major trading partner ever had and a shitload of people in the region and around the world still admire her. Plus the issue leading to a boycott was a discriminatory political decision by the festival.
Writer or not, that means that her withdrawing matters and is thus her doing the right thing as usual.
How is deciding not to attend “inserting herself into the story”? If she decided to attend anyway, that would be a story in and of itself.
