New Delhi, Jan. 14 -- Organizers of Australia's largest free literary festival canceled the event Tuesday after more than 180 writers and speakers withdrew over the scrapping of an appearance by an Australian-Palestinian writer and academic.

The uproar began when the board of the Adelaide Festival, which runs Adelaide Writers Week, announced on Jan. 8 that they had disinvited Randa Abdel-Fattah from the event "given her previous statements" and citing cultural sensitivities "at this unprecedented time so soon after" an antisemitic mass shooting at Sydney's Bondi Beach.

There was no suggestion that Abdel-Fattah or her writings "have any connection with the tragedy," the board members added.

The board didn't cite specific statements by t...