The Adelaide Festival board has imploded following its decision to drop Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah continues, reports The Guardian.

Daniela Ritorto, Donny Walford and Nick Linke announced that they were stepping down from the board at an extraordinary board meeting on January 10. This was followed by the resignation of the chairperson, Tracey Whiting.

The shock resignations follow nearly 100 participants withdrawing from the Adelaide Writers’ Week, part of the Adelaide Festival, which is set to begin at the end of February.

The board had previously cited the “tragic events at Bondi” to axe Abdel-Fattah, saying that it would not be “culturally sensitive” to proceed with her programme at the festival. In a later public statement, the board said that its decision was informed by “past statements” made by the author, although it did not specify which statements it was referring to.

Abdel-Fattah—whose latest novel Discipline fittingly “tallies the price we all pay when those with privilege choose to remain silent”—then rightly pointed out that the board was “egregiously racist” in attempting to associate her ethnicity with the Bondi massacre in December last year.

The Guardian also notes that the board might now face difficulty in reaching quorum, as the Adelaide Festival Corporation Act 1998 states that the board must adhere to a gender composition rule of having at least two men and two women on the board. At present, only one man remains on the board.

Subsequently, Abdel-Fattah’s lawyers have demanded that the Adelaide Festival board provide all of the past statements that it said had led to her axing. “As 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,” the legal letter said.

(Via The Guardian, ArtsHub, News.com.au)