Dozens of writers, four board members, and a sponsor have withdrawn from a top Australian arts festival after it cancelled an Australian-Palestinian author’s invitation in the wake of the Bondi Beach mass shooting.The Adelaide Festival confirmed in a statement on Monday that the chairperson and three members of its board had resigned after it disinvited Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board’s decision.In addition to the board members, about 100 of the 124 participants have also withdrawn from the festival, which runs from February 27 to March 15, leaving it in doubt, according to local media reports.The Adelaide Festival board had announced on Thursday that it would disinvite Abdel-Fattah from its February event because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to programme her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi”.The shooting, which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on December 14, prompted nationwide calls to tackle anti-Semitism.Abdel-Fattah, a Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship”. She said the board’s attempt to associate her with the Bondi killings was “despicable”.Mass boycottThe writers who pulled out of the festival included former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who had been scheduled to discuss her memoir, as well as former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufak …
