New Arab Australian body says Arab 'voices are being edited out of public life'

The Australian Arab Institute for Culture and Ideas declares ‘the time for symbolic inclusion is over’.

Article written by Cheryl Akle, Lawrence Abou Khater and Jamal Hakim. Opinions expressed are those of the authors alone.

The targeting and intimidation of Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah and the swift capitulation of the Bendigo Writers Festival is part of a persistent pattern of maligning Australian thinkers of Arab descent. These are not only attacks on Arab Australians, but also on Australian institutions and our democracy. There must be space for us in the national conversation. This is why we have formed the Australian Arab Institute for Culture and Ideas.

Across the country, our voices are being edited out of public life. From cultural institutions that drop artists for their stance on Palestine, to universities where Arab scholars face intimidation, to media that excludes us from conversations about our own region – we are witnessing the quiet erasure of an entire community’s right to speak, imagine and belong.

This silencing is not accidental. It is structural. It is the result of decades of Orientalism, racism, and a political climate that has made Arab identity synonymous with controversy: something to be managed, surveilled, or erased rather than celebrated or invested in. But in the past 20 months, the attacks have intensified, and they seek to eradicate our community’s invaluable contribution to Australia’s media and the arts.

We have been part of the Australian story for over 150 years. Early Lebanese and Syrian migrants worked as hawkers, shopkeepers, and labourers, yet under the White Australia policy, they were deemed non-white, excluded from citizenship and voting, and treated as enemy aliens during the World Wars.

In later decades, our communities were made visible only through crises – the Gulf War, and the so-called war on terror – and always as a problem to be contained. Suspicion was codified into policy and amplified by sensationalist media, forcing generations to downplay our Arabness in public.

What is different now is the scale. While this erasure has been happening for decades, since October 2023 it has escalated, tearing into the fabric of our society and creative institutions.

In 2025, artist Khaled Sabsabi was dropped from representing Australia at the Venice Biennale after political pressure misrepresented his work. Poet Omar Sakr had library workshops cancelled over his support for Palestine. Journalist Antoinette Lattouf was unlawfully dismissed from the ABC after sharing a Human Rights Watch statement on Gaza, with the court finding she was targeted for her political opinions opposing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Palestinian-Australian academic Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah had her government research grant suspended following political attacks.

These are not isolated incidents. They reveal a coordinated pattern of silencing: weaponising outrage, political intimidation, and institutional cowardice. Often the justification is “safety” or “neutrality,” but whose safety is protected when Arab creatives are erased? What kind of neutrality fires a journalist for sharing facts?

The impacts are far-reaching. Arab Australians across sectors are self-censoring. Artists fear losing funding. Writers water down their work. Young Arab Australians are learning that being visible and principled may cost them their careers.

And yet, every act of silencing has sparked community solidarity. Artists rallied behind Sabsabi. Writers and librarians stood with Sakr. Lattouf’s court win forced the ABC into public accountability. Abdel-Fattah’s defence was joined by academics, students, and allies across the country.

We are not new. We are not temporary. We are not guests. We are poets and dancers, doctors, lawyers and lyricists, teachers, tradies, thinkers, and visionaries. We are part of this nation’s cultural, civic, and creative fabric.

Government action remains inadequate. Jillian Segal’s report on antisemitism, while claiming to combat racism, risks collapsing criticism of Israel into bigotry, casting suspicion on Arab voices. The appointment of an Islamophobia envoy is overdue, but even here our identities are flattened. Arabness is spoken about only through the lens of religion, only when framed as a problem. There is no envoy for the erasure of Arab artists, no inquiry into the silencing of Arab journalists, no national acknowledgment of Arab cultural contribution.

The Australian Arab Institute for Culture and Ideas will be dedicated to advancing Arab cultural and intellectual life in Australia. Rooted in equity, liberation, community-building, and creative resistance, we exist to help Arab Australians thrive, express, and inspire – through story, art, and knowledge – proudly and unapologetically.

The measure of a truly multicultural society is not how it celebrates food and festivals, but how it shares power over the narratives that define belonging. We are asking for nothing less than the full rights of cultural citizenship: to imagine, speak, dissent, and create without fear of erasure.

Silence is not neutral. Policy that fails to protect our participation is not neutral. The time for symbolic inclusion is over. What we need is structural change so that future generations of Arab Australians see their voices and visions not as footnotes, but as integral chapters in Australia’s cultural canon.

Being Arab and Australian is not a contradiction – it is a dynamic negotiation, not a problem to be solved. The in-between is where new futures are imagined, where critique and care coexist, where memory and aspiration intersect. Claiming that space fully, publicly, and without fear is both an act of authenticity and a collective demand for a plural democracy that lives up to its rhetoric.

We are unapologetically Arab and unmistakably Australian. This Institute is not only a reaction to silencing, it is a declaration of presence.

******

Cheryl Akle is an acclaimed publishing industry professional and host of the Better Reading podcast. She is the Chair of the Australian Arab Institute for Culture and Ideas.

Lawrence Abou Khater is a seasoned community representative, and previous deputy chair of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria. He is a founding board member of the Australian Arab Institute for Culture and Ideas.

Jamal Hakim is a civic leader, entrepreneur, and previous Councillor at the City of Melbourne. He is the inaugural Executive Officer and co-founder of the Australian Arab Institute for Culture and Ideas.

For more on our work, visit www.aaici.org.au

About the AAICI:

The Australian Arab Institute for Culture and Ideas is a bold, values-driven organisation dedicated to advancing Arab cultural and intellectual life in Australia. Rooted in principles of equity, liberation, community-building, creative resistance and strength, we exist to empower Arab Australians to thrive, express, and inspire through story, art, and knowledge; proudly and unapologetically.