Adelaide Festival chair Tracey Whiting has quit the organisation amid the continued fallout over its decision to remove Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah from the festival’s writers program.
“I have decided to resign as Chair of the Adelaide Festival Board, effective immediately,” Whiting announced in a LinkedIn post on Sunday.
“Recent decisions were bound by certain undertakings and my resignation enables the Adelaide Festival, as an organisation, to refresh its leadership and its approach to these circumstances,” she wrote.
Withing’s resignation comes after the festival announced it had scrapped Abdel-Fattah from this year’s Writers’ Week lineup — a move which prompted fierce backlash from the arts community and beyond.
Citing Abdel-Fattah’s past comments opposing Israel, Adelaide Festival said in a statement last week that she’d no longer appear on the program given the “unprecedented” sensitivities in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.
“Whilst we do not suggest in any way that Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah or her writings have any connection with the tragedy at Bondi, given her past statements we have formed the view that it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi,” the statement read.
The decision prompted dozens of authors dozens of authors scheduled to appear at the festival — including ABC reporter Louise Milligan and Boy Swallows Universe author Trent Dalton — to withdraw from the lineup, with Whiting being one of four board members to resign after it held long “crisis talks” over the weekend.
The mass exodus reportedly puts the festival in breach of the Adelaide Festival Corporation Act, which states that “at least two members must be women and at least two must be men”.
As it stands, Brenton Cox is the only person who remains on the board.
The situation has drawn political commentary, with South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas saying he supports Abdel-Fattah’s removal from the program but denying he instructed the board to make the decision.
In a statement after the news, Abdel-Fattah said her removal was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship” and described attempts to associate her with the Bondi attack as “despicable”.
“What makes this so egregiously racist is that the Adelaide Writers’ Festival Board has stripped me of my humanity and agency, reducing me to an object onto which others can project their racist fears and smears,” Abdel-Fattah said.
Abdel-Fattah also sent a legal letter to the festival on Sunday demanding clarity around exactly why she had been disinvited from the event.
Adelaide Festival temporarily removed the Writers’ Week section from its website after multiple participating authors withdrew their participation, saying it would reestablish it once it “work[s] through changes” to its authors lineup.
Addressing the backlash, Adelaide Festival acknowledged that Abdel-Fattah’s removal would “likely be disappointing to many in our community” and would “cause discomfort and pressure to other participants”.
“These decisions have not been taken lightly. Our only request is that our community is respectful to our staff and volunteers who have not formed part of our decision-making process and deserve nothing but ongoing support for their excellent work,” the board said.
Adelaide Festival will begin on February 27 and conclude on March 15.
Lead images: Macquarie University, Instagram and X
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