Adelaide’s Writers’ Week Festival has lost another major sponsor as the controversy over its decision to program two Palestinian authors gathers momentum.

Following last week’s announcement that the law firm MinterEllison was backing out of its sponsorship agreement with the Festival, and that the French IT company Capgemini had also revoked its arrangement, the professional services company PwC Australia has followed suit.

Adelaide Writers’ Week. Photo supplied.

PwC, which was to provide pro bono auditing services to the Adelaide Festival Foundation, which provides financial support to the Adelaide Festival, has had its logo removed from the sponsor grid on the Writers’ Week website.

In a memo to staff, a PwC spokesperson wrote, “We condemn in the strongest terms any antisemitic comments and any suggestion of support for Russia’s war against Ukraine. We stand with the Jewish and Ukrainian communities who have been understandably hurt by this issue. In this respect we have asked the chair of the Adelaide Foundation that any association of PwC with this aspect of the festival be removed.”

The Palestinian authors, Susan Abulhawa and Mohammed El-Kurd, have posted anti-Israeli and anti-Ukraine government comments on their respective social media feeds.

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