Attempts to silence writers rarely erase them. More often, they expose insecurity, deepen division, and turn targets into symbols of resistance.

History is replete with examples that efforts to suppress writers, thinkers, and artists do not erase them, but instead propel their voices further into public view.

Far from erasing dissenting voices, such campaigns often amplify them, transforming relatively contained figures into global symbols of resistance. The recent smear campaign against the Australian writer and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah fits squarely within this long and ignoble tradition.

Whatever the intentions of those who sought to delegitimise her – through accusations, insinuations, and the now-familiar tactic of conflating criticism of Israeli state violence with antisemitism – the result has been counterproductive. Abdel-Fattah is today more widely read, discussed, and defended than before. Her work has reached audiences who may never previously have encountered it. Book sales rise, invitations multiply, and public scrutiny shifts from the accused to the accusers. This is not accidental. It is structural.

When authority acts without moral legitimacy, it exposes itself. Suppression becomes a confession of weakness. As Hannah Arendt observed, power relies on consent; coercion begins where legitimacy ends. Smear campaigns........

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