Emails reveal State Library discussed political, religious views of writers

On Tuesday, McKew said: “My decisions as a board member are guided by the policy of political neutrality, which covers all the major Victorian cultural institutions. The library is being entirely consistent in applying this policy to the contentious issue of Gaza/Israel.”

The documents reveal that Duldig read articles written by Sakr that had been identified as controversial. Duldig wrote in February: “It is a reasoned argument, though controversial. On these grounds, no reason not to proceed with the presenter.”

Library management then decided to raise the issue with other board members and seek advice from state government funding body Creative Victoria. Staff were also delegated to consult library donors about the issue.

In a separate set of email correspondence between staff, one library employee raises Sakr’s Muslim religion and his pairing with a Jewish writer as a concern.

“I wanted to flag with you two authors who are paired together for one of the teen writing boot camp information sessions on 15 Feb,” the email, written by an unnamed employee, says. “The reason I’m flagging it is because one is of Muslim heritage (Omar Sakr) and the other I believe is of Jewish heritage and it’s just clicked that this might need some additional risk management.”

Sakr’s views on Palestine and his poetry about Israel’s invasion are cited below those comments.

It is unclear from the documents when and by whom the decision was made to cancel the workshops.

The State Library has regularly denied any decisions about the writing workshops were based on the political beliefs or identity of anyone involved with the program.

On Tuesday, Duldig did not answer specific questions relating to Sakr’s religion and the involvement of donors. In a statement, he reiterated the library’s position that “postponing” the writing boot camp was not due to the political views of the participants.

“Concerns were raised with the library about the blogs of one writer, Mr Sakr, and these blogs were found not to require further action,” he said. “In reviewing those concerns, the library did find that its policies and procedures were not sufficiently robust.”

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Sakr said on Tuesday: “I think it’s clear now to everyone how poorly handled, how unnecessary and wasteful and damaging this has been to us writers and to the library’s reputation.”

The cancelling of the writing workshops has led to the resignations of senior staff and an open letter signed by more than 100 employees criticising library management. Australian authors Michelle de Kretser, Tony Birch and Grace Yee have all announced a boycott of the library over its handling of the issue.

Last Friday, The Age reported that library management had banned staff from wearing pro-Palestine material. In response Duldig emailed all staff expressing disappointment they had spoken to this masthead about the library’s new dress code, warning staff that speaking to the media could breach their employment conditions.