A top writers’ festival in Australia has been called off amid controversy over the cancellation of a scheduled appearance by a prominent Australian-Palestinian activist and author.The organisers of Adelaide Writers’ Week said on Tuesday that the event could no longer go ahead following a wave of speaker withdrawals and board resignations prompted by the removal of Randa Abdel-Fattah from the lineup.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listIn a statement, the festival’s board said while it had disinvited Abdel-Fattah out of respect for the Jewish community in the wake of the Bondi Beach mass shooting, the decision had created “more division”.“We recognise and deeply regret the distress this decision has caused to our audience, artists and writers, donors, corporate partners, the government and our own staff and people,” the board said.“We also apologise to Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah for how the decision was represented and reiterate this is not about identity or dissent but rather a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression in our nation following Australia’s worst terror attack in history.”The announcement came hours after Louise Adler, the director of the event, said in an op-ed that Abdel-Fattah had been disinvited by the festival’s board despite her “strongest opposition”.Writing in The Guardian, Adler called Abdel-Fattah’s removal from the festival lineup a blow to free ex …
