Louise Adler has resigned as director of Adelaide Writers' Week (AWW) after organisers removed Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah from this year's program.
Adler announced her resignation from the beleaguered literary event in an opinion piece published by Guardian Australia on Tuesday, saying she could not be "party to the silencing of writers".
A spokesperson for the Adelaide Festival confirmed Adler's departure to SBS News.
Her resignation follows days of intensifying fallout from the board's decision to drop Abdel-Fattah, which has triggered a large-scale withdrawal of writers and speakers from the event, which is scheduled to run from 27 February to 15 March,
Since the decision, about 180 writers, commentators and academics have pulled out, including former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, bestselling author Zadie Smith, Pulitzer prize-winner Percival Everett and one of Australia's most decorated writers, Helen Garner.
"I cannot be party to silencing writers so, with a heavy heart, I am resigning from my role as the director of the AWW," Adler wrote for Guardian Australia.
"Writers and writing matters, even when they are presenting ideas that discomfort and challenge us."
Abdel-Fattah told ABC Radio Adelaide on Tuesday that Adler's resignation was "a tragedy".
"Louise is one of the most incredible directors and icons in Australia's cultural history and she has done such amazing work in that role," she said.
"I think it's a tragedy it has come to this, it could easily have gone the other way."
Adler's departure unfolds as the Adelaide Festival grapples with an unprecedented leadership crisis.
Over the weekend, four of the seven voting members of the festival board resigned, including board chair Tracey Whiting.
Whiting did not detail her reasons, saying only that "recent decisions were bound by certain undertakings" and that her resignation, effective immediately, would allow the organisation to "refresh its leadership and its approach".
The Adelaide Festival board's decision to remove Abdel-Fattah has left the future of the 2026 festival in doubt.
It said last week said Abdel-Fattah would no longer appear at Adelaide Writers' Week because it would not be "culturally sensitive" following the Bondi Beach terror attack referring to "past statements" she had made, which they did not specify.
Abdel-Fattah is the daughter of Palestinian and Egyptian parents, and has been a vocal critic of Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
She has previously faced criticism from the Coalition, as well as some Jewish organisations and media outlets, over comments about Israel and Zionism, including a widely reported post in which she claimed Zionists had "no claim or right to cultural safety".
Abdel-Fattah has said her objections and critiques of Zionism, a political ideology, have been conflated with antisemitism.
She has also said her posting of an image of a Palestinian paratrooper soon after the October 7 attacks, a move that has also been criticised, was intended as a symbolic expression of besieged Palestinians "breaking out of their prison", and that she did not support the killing of civilians. She said she was unaware at the time of the scale or severity of the attacks.
Abdel-Fattah has said she is considering her legal options in the wake of the board's decision, which she described as an "obscene attempt" to associate her with the Bondi Beach terror attack.
The board has said it was not suggesting Abdel-Fattah or her work had any connection to the attack, but that proceeding with her appearance would "not be culturally sensitive".
Adler, a former publisher and editor and the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors, has been a consistent defender of the right of Palestinians to speak freely.
She was highly critical of the board's reasoning in her opinion piece.
She wrote the decision to dump Abdel-Fattah "weakens freedom of speech and is the harbinger of a less free nation, where lobbying and political pressure determine who gets to speak and who doesn't".
She argued the decision reflected a wider pattern within Australian arts organisations, pointing to previous controversies involving the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Creative Australia and the collapse of the Bendigo Writers Festival.
In her view, boards with limited arts experience had been unnerved by political pressure and coordinated campaigns.
Her column echoed concerns raised by 17 prominent cultural figures — all former senior leaders of the Adelaide Festival — who wrote an open letter condemning the board's decision.
The signatories challenged the South Australian government to appoint people with arts expertise to the festival board, stating: "We note there are currently none."
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