A New York Times columnist at the centre of a second controversy engulfing Adelaide writers’ week has said he was uninvited from the event in 2024.

Thomas Friedman, who is Jewish, confirmed to Nine newspapers on Thursday that after he agreed to appear in a video link session, he was subsequently notified “that the timing would not work out”.

Earlier this week, former festival board member Tony Berg, who is of Jewish heritage, made an extraordinary accusation of “hypocrisy” against the director of Adelaide writers’ week, Louise Adler, saying she had lobbied for the removal of Friedman from the festival lineup.

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At the time, a group of 10 academics had signed a petition demanding Friedman’s removal due to a controversial column he had written in the New York Times days earlier, which compared the Middle East conflict to the animal kingdom. The Palestinian author and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah, who was uninvited from this year’s writers’ week, was among the group.

When Friedman was notified, the academics were sent a letter by the board saying that requesting the cancellation of an artist or writer was an “extremely serious” issue.

“We have an international reputation for supporting artistic freedom of expression,” the letter signed by the board’s chair, Tracey Whiting, said.

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

Whiting resigned as the chair of the festival board on Saturday. Guardian Australia has been unable to reach her for comment.

The inconsistency between the way the board handled the cases of Friedman and Abdel-Fattah was brought to light earlier his week when Berg’s previously confidential letter of resignation from the board began circulating.

Berg’s letter was tendered on 22 October to Whiting, South Australian arts minister Andrea Michaels and the Adelaide festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba.

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

“That the director programs pro-Palestinians and anti-Zionists is well known. The Board has encouraged her to program writers who might have a different perspective. She resolutely fails to do so.”

He accused Adler of lobbying for the cancellation of one such person who held a different perspective to her “on the grounds of alleged inappropriate description of Middle East countries and organisations even when many of the pro-Palestinian writers she has programmed have said and posted much worse things about Israel and Zionists”.

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

“In 2024, Louise Adler led a demand to the board to retract an invitation to Tom Friedman to participate in the 2024 Adelaide Writers Week,” Berg’s statement said.

“After Tom Friedman … was invited to speak, Randa Abdel-Fattah had led a group of academics demanding that Tom Friedman be de-platformed. Then Louise Adler, [Adelaide festival artistic director] Ruth MacKenzie and [festival chief executive] Kath Mainland put an ultimatum to the board that they would resign if it did not endorse their recommendation to disinvite Friedman. In the face of that threat, the Board felt it had no alternative but to allow withdraw [sic] the invitation to Friedman.”

Berg accused Adler and Abdel-Fatah of being “utterly hypocritical” in accusing the board of repressing freedom of speech when they had both actively sought to deny it to Friedman.

“They both exhibit hypocrisy in defending free speech for some, when I observed them both to stridently oppose 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 Corporation announced the cancellation of the 2026 writers’ festival.

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

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

“I’m rather surprised that a former CEO of Macquarie Bank has breached those confidences. It’s indicative of the way the former board operated, and I believe will make for a rich case study for future management students.”

Abdel-Fattah disputed Berg’s claims that she, along with Adler, led the charge to cancel Friedman.

“I was one of 10 Indigenous and academics of colour who wrote a researched letter with references and footnotes about the harm of racial tropes,” she said in a statement to Guardian Australia.

“What is missing in this is the question of power. We write letters on Google Docs to boards. The people who want to cancel us have premiers intervening.”

Since last Thursday, the South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, has denied any direct interference, insisting the board acted independently.

Adelaide festival has been approached for comment.