American Jewish columnist Thomas Friedman says he was not invited to 2024 Adelaide Book Week due to ‘timing’ | Adelaide Festival

A New York Times columnist at the center of a second controversy sweeping Adelaide Writers Week says he has not been invited to the event in 2024.

Thomas Friedman, who is Jewish, confirmed to Nine Newspapers on Thursday that after agreeing to appear in a videolink session, he was later notified “that the timing wouldn’t work”.

Earlier this week, former festival board member Tony Berg, who is of Jewish descent, leveled an extraordinary accusation of “hypocrisy” against Adelaide Writers Week director Louise Adler, saying she had lobbied for Friedman’s removal from the festival’s line-up.

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At the time, a group of 10 academics signed a petition calling for Friedman’s dismissal over a controversial column he had written in the New York Times days earlier, in which he compared the conflict in the Middle East to the animal kingdom. Palestinian writer and academic Randa Abdel Fattah, who was not invited to participate in this year’s Book Week, was among the group.

When Friedman was notified, the board sent Academics a letter saying that requesting an artist or writer’s cancellation was an “extremely serious” issue.

“We have an international reputation for supporting freedom of artistic expression,” said the letter, signed by Board Chair Tracy Whiting.

“Thomas L. Friedman was scheduled to contribute online from New York. However, I have been informed that due to last-minute scheduling issues, he is no longer participating in this year’s program.”

Whiting resigned as chairman of the festival’s board of directors on Saturday. Guardian Australia was unable to reach her for comment.

The discrepancy between the way the board handled the Friedman and Abdel Fattah cases was highlighted earlier in the week when Berg’s previously confidential resignation letter from the board began circulating.

Berg’s letter was presented on 22 October to Whiting, South Australian Arts Minister Andrea Michaels and Adelaide Festival CEO Julian Hopa.

“I cannot serve on a board that employs a director for Adelaide Writers Week (AWW)… which programs writers with a vendetta against Israel and Zionism,” Berg wrote in his resignation email.

“The director of pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist programs is well known. The board has encouraged her to hire program writers who may have a different point of view. She flatly fails to do so.”

Adler was accused of pushing for the cancellation of one of those people who had a different view than her “based on the allegedly inappropriate description of Middle Eastern countries and organizations even as many of the pro-Palestinian writers he programmed and published said much worse things about Israel and the Zionists.”

Earlier this week, Berg sent a statement to the media confirming that it was Friedman who he was referring to in his resignation email.

“In 2024, Louise Adler led a request to the board to withdraw Tom Freedman’s invitation to participate in Adelaide Book Week 2024,” Berg’s statement said.

“After inviting Tom Friedman… to speak, Randa Abdel Fattah led a group of academics demanding that Tom Friedman be removed from the podium. Then Louise Adler, [Adelaide festival artistic director] Ruth MacKenzie W [festival chief executive] Cath Mainland gave the board an ultimatum that they would resign if he did not support their recommendation to rescind Friedman’s invitation. Faced with this threat, the Council felt it had no alternative but to allow the withdrawal [sic] The call to Friedman.”

Berg accused Adler and Abdel Fattah of being “complete hypocrites” in accusing the Council of suppressing freedom of expression when they both actively sought to deny it to Friedman.

“Both demonstrate hypocrisy in defending free speech to some, when I observed them both vehemently opposed to free speech during my time on the board,” he said.

Adler resigned on Tuesday over Abdel Fattah’s cancellation, and later that day, the Adelaide Festival Foundation announced the cancellation of the 2026 book festival.

Adler responded to Berg’s allegations by accusing the former board member of violating board confidentiality.

“I consider discussions around the board table confidential,” she said in a prepared statement.

“I am rather surprised that the former CEO of Macquarie Bank breached those secrets. This is indicative of the way the previous board operated, and I think it will serve as a rich case study for future management students.”

Abdel Fattah questioned Berg’s claims that she and Adler led the charge to abolish Friedman.

“I was one of 10 Indigenous and Colored academics who wrote a bibliography and footnote on the harm of racist tropes,” she said in a statement to Guardian Australia.

“What is missing in this is the issue of authority. We are writing letters on Google Docs to the boards of directors. The people who want to abolish us are being intervened by the prime ministers.”

Since last Thursday, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has denied any direct interference and insisted the board acted independently.

The Adelaide Festival has been contacted for comment.