Dumping writer Randa Abdel-Fattah from a major Australian festival was a "calculated decision to reinforce the link between me and the Bondi atrocity", the Palestinian-Australian says.
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Three Adelaide Festival board members and chair Tracey Whiting quit over the weekend and dozens of authors have withdrawn from Writers' Week, which starts on February 28.
The mass boycott followed the board's announcement last Thursday that "national grief" and "community tensions" triggered by the Bondi shooting on December 14 had prompted its decision to remove the Palestinian-Australian writer from its program.
The board referred to "past statements" made by the author and conservative Jewish groups have highlighted Dr Abdel-Fattah's sharing of posts critical of Israel on social media.
On Monday, Dr Abdel-Fattah told AAP it was "clear that attempts to police speech ... will be met with a strong response from the writing and creative community".
"It is hard to view the timing as accidental rather than a calculated decision to make the announcement on that particular day and to reinforce the link between me and the Bondi atrocity," she said.
"No amount of retrospective back-pedalling about vague 'prior statements' can obscure the fact that I was formally disinvited on the grounds that my Palestinian identity would act as an emotional provocation."
"(It was) a frightening foreshadowing of what is attempted to be normalised post-Bondi."
Marque Lawyers managing partner Michael Bradley, who represents Dr Abdel-Fattah, told AAP the "moral indefensibility of the Adelaide Festival board's actions has been amply evidenced by the reaction it's provoked".
"It also trampled on Randa's human rights, and the board will have to answer for that," he said.
In a letter to Ms Whiting on Sunday, Mr Bradley asked the board to "identify with specificity each of the past statements made by her on which the board relied in making its decision".
"Please ensure that your organisation and each individual member of the board retains all documents in their possession … that relate to the decision to exclude Dr Abdel-Fattah," he wrote.
"You are each now on notice that these documents may be required for the purpose of litigation."
Announcing her decision to resign on Sunday, Ms Whiting said "recent decisions were bound by certain undertakings and my resignation enables the Adelaide Festival, as an organisation, to refresh its leadership and its approach to these circumstances".
Three board members - journalist Daniela Ritorto, businesswoman Donny Walford and lawyer Nick Linke - also quit at an extraordinary board meeting on Saturday.
The board has made no public comment since announcing Dr Abdel-Fattah's cancellation, and over the weekend, comments on Facebook pages for the festival and writers week were disabled.
In a statement, Adelaide Festival Corporation executive director Julian Hobba said the festival was "navigating a complex and unprecedented moment" and would share further updates later.
Former Adelaide Writers' Week director Jo Dyer told Radio National Ms Whiting's decision to quit was unsurprising.
"She has … overseen a decision which has trashed the international standing of what is one of the most beloved organisations in Adelaide," she said.
Only three voting members remained and the board no longer had a quorum, Ms Dyer said.
Premier Peter Malinauskas has said he was prevented by law from directing the board.
But he said "when asked for my opinion I was happy to make it clear that the state government did not support the inclusion of Dr Abdel-Fattah on the Adelaide Writers' Week program".
The premier had been "criminally negligent in the way that he has approached Writers' Week," Ms Dyer said.
"He had brought really unbearable pressure on the board to rescind the invitation to Dr Abdel-Fattah in a way which is completely inappropriate for him to do," she said.
Greens acting leader Sarah Hanson-Young said Mr Malinauskas had "created an enormous mess" by putting political pressure on the board and called for Dr Abdel-Fattah to be reinstated.
"Adelaide's arts and festival brand is in tatters," she said.
"The Adelaide Festival is now on the brink of collapse and the government needs to act urgently."
When asked for his view on the author's axing, Arts Minister Tony Burke responded by saying "we leave those decisions to the festivals themselves".
"We don't tell festivals who they should put on and who they shouldn't," he said.
However, federal cabinet minister Madeleine King has backed the controversial decision, saying she is "on a unity ticket with Premier Peter Malinauskas on this".
"The views that she has said in relation to wishing for the end of Israel, as well as some other pretty vile commentary, doesn't deserve an invitation to the writers festival," said Ms King who is the first federal minister to comment on the issue.
Australian Associated Press
