ARC suspends $870,000 grant to pro-Palestine academic

WORLD, Feb. 28 (YPA) -The Australian Research Council (ARC) has suspended $870,000 grant to prominent academic and Palestinian advocate Randa Abdel-Fattah after the Minister for Education requested the Council’s board to investigate her fellowship.

Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, the recipient of an ARC Future Fellowship and an academic at Macquarie University, has faced sustained criticism from the Coalition, some Jewish bodies and media outlets for controversial comments on Israel, including alleging Zionists had “no claim or right to cultural safety”.

Abdel-Fattah’s project, which was awarded funding by the ARC in 2022, was commissioned to research Arab and Muslim-Australian social movements.

On 31 January, the education minister, Jason Clare, wrote to the ARC board requesting they investigate her research grant as a “matter of priority”, expressing concerns over her speech at an anti-racism symposium headed by the Queensland University of Technology’s Carumba Institute.

@E.Y.M