"If you ask me about confusion, fear, and expectations, they were there in the early hours and days […] If you ask me about freedom, justice and peace, it could have been achieved,” she went on.
During an interview with Sky News Australia days after the attack, she said she did not see Hamas “as terrorists” and that the attack itself was inevitable after “every avenue of peaceful resistance” had been unsuccessful.
She also once wrote on social media: “To hell with you all. Every last Zionist. May you never know a second’s peace in your sadistic miserable lives,” according to the Australian Daily Telegraph.
The day after October 7, Abdel-Fattah changed her Facebook profile picture to a paraglider in the colours of the Palestinian flag. She claimed she was not aware at the time that armed paragliders had landed at the Nova music festival and massacred civilians.
She said the image of the paraglider symbolised “freedom and escape from imprisonment” and rejected the claim it was a glorification of violence against civilians.
The profile picture remained unchanged for five months, which she attributed to the fact she does not regularly use Facebook.
Randa Abdel-Fattah changes her Facebook cover photo to a paraglider the day after the October 7 massacre[Missing Credit]
She wrote in January 2026 that “an image that represented a moment of freedom is not something I will apologise for. I will not have my humanity interrogated by people who have no humanity.”
The writer also accused Israel of committing a “Palestinian holocaust” in Gaza and appeared to support the idea that October 7 was an “open air prison breakout” in another article for Mondoweiss published in January this year.
She wrote: "Reports indicated a coordinated breakout from Gaza culminating in the seizure of the Erez crossing. Even though what was unfolding on the ground in Gaza remained clouded by confusion and chaos […] what stunned the world was that Palestinians had broken free of what major human rights organisations had long unanimously described as an 'open-air prison’.”
In the same Mondoweiss article she also said: "The violations of international law Hamas committed against Israeli civilians on October 7 should be properly investigated, and any punishment or sanction must fall on the perpetrators alone."
Her scheduled appearance at Adelaide Writers’ Week was cancelled earlier this year amid concerns about her history of inflammatory remarks in the aftermath of the antisemitic Bondi Beach massacre. The entire event was eventually cancelled after more than 180 participants pulled out in solidarity with her.
The Cambridge Literary Festival, which is a registered charity, describes itself as “firmly at the heart of the cultural scene in Cambridge”.
Among the more than 350 writers and speakers it welcomes each year have been notable figures including Ian McEwan, Zadie Smith, Nicola Sturgeon, John Cleese, Irvine Welsh, Anne Enright, and Jonathan Freedland.
On October 8, Abdel-Fattah will be hosted by the Cambridge Literary Festival, which runs events throughout the year, at Newnham College to speak about her debut adult novel, Discipline. The novel explores themes “of censorship, complicity, courage and resilience. Set against a backdrop of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza,” according to the festival.
On the festival’s website, organisers claim Abdel-Fattah’s disinvitation to the Adeleide festival in Australia earlier this year centred on her “characterisation of Israel’s military actions as ‘genocide’.”
The Cambridge Literary Festival said: “The event was cancelled on Friday due to operational issues and is no longer going ahead. It was due to be a standalone event, and she was not headlining the festival, which takes place in November.”
Abdel-Fattah was approached for comment.
