{"id":508780,"date":"2026-01-11T15:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T15:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/508780\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T15:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T15:28:14","slug":"three-board-members-resign-from-adelaide-festival-as-randa-abdel-fattah-sends-legal-notice-adelaide-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/508780\/","title":{"rendered":"Three board members resign from Adelaide festival as Randa Abdel-Fattah sends legal notice | Adelaide festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Adelaide festival<\/a> is facing an unprecedented leadership crisis after three board members resigned this weekend.<\/p>\n

The journalist Daniela Ritorto, the Adelaide businesswoman Donny Walford and the lawyer Nick Linke stepped down at an extraordinary board meeting on Saturday following the board\u2019s controversial decision to dump the Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah<\/a> from the 2026 writers\u2019 week program.<\/p>\n

The sudden departures follow the withdrawal of more than 70 participants of next month\u2019s festival events.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear how the board will be able to reach a quorum, potentially paralysing its legal authority to make decisions for the 2026 event.<\/p>\n

Under the Adelaide<\/a> Festival Corporation Act 1998, the board must adhere to strict gender composition rules. With Linke\u2019s departure, only one man, Adelaide airport\u2019s managing director, Brenton Cox, remains. The act requires a minimum of two men and two women on the board.<\/p>\n

The board has made no public comment since announcing the cancellation of Abdel-Fattah last Thursday.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

In that statement the board said it had been \u201cshocked and saddened by the tragic events at Bondi\u201d and the \u201csignificant heightening of both community tensions and the community debate\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Board responsible for the Adelaide Festival organisation and all Adelaide Writers\u2019 Week events, staff, volunteers and participants, we have today advised scheduled writer Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah that the Board has formed the judgment that we do not wish to proceed with her scheduled appearance at next month\u2019s Writers\u2019 Week,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The board said while it did not suggest \u201cin any way\u201d that Abdel-Fattah or her writings had any connection with the tragedy at Bondi, the decision had been made \u201cgiven her past statements\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have formed the view that it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Within hours of the board\u2019s announcement, Abdel-Fattah issued her own statement, accusing the festival board of \u201cblatant and shameless\u201d anti-Palestinian racism and censorship. She said the board\u2019s attempt to associate her with the Bondi massacre was \u201cdespicable\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Sunday the Sydney legal firm Marque, acting on behalf of Abdel-Fattah, wrote to the festival board chair, Tracey Whiting, demanding she provide each and every statement made by the academic that had played a part in the board\u2019s decision to axe her from the 2026 program.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour letter notified Dr Abdel-Fattah of the board\u2019s decision to exclude her from participating as a speaker at Adelaide Writers Week in 2026,\u201d said the letter, from Marque\u2019s managing partner, Michael Bradley.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour letter was the first indication she received that her participation was in question. There was no communication or consultation of any kind with her prior to the decision to exclude her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradley said the notification his client received from the board had provided no reason for its decision other than \u201cit would not be culturally sensitive to proceed with [her] scheduled appearance\u201d.<\/p>\n

But in the public statement it issued on Thursday, Bradley noted, the board said it was her past statements that had informed the board\u2019s decision it would be culturally insensitive to allow her participation, so soon after the Bondi terror attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a matter of basic procedural fairness to Dr Abdel-Fattah, please identify with specificity, each of the past statements made by her on which the board relied in making the decision,\u201d the legal letter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is entitled to this information.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board has been given until 14 January to respond, along with a request to Whiting and her diminished board to retain all documents relating to the matter, for the purposes of possible litigation.<\/p>\n

On Sunday Guardian Australia revealed that the board had resisted attempts<\/a> to remove a pro-Israel columnist, Thomas Friedman, from the 2024 writers\u2019 week program after he published a controversial column comparing the Middle East conflict to the animal kingdom<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Adelaide festival is facing an unprecedented leadership crisis after three board members resigned this weekend. The journalist…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":508781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-508780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115877177805801076","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}