More than 100 staff members at State Library Victoria have written to its chief executive expressing anger at the postponement of a series of writing workshops, claiming the events were scrapped because of the pro-Palestinian views held by the writers hosting them., which were to be conducted by six writers - four of whom had publicly expressed strong opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza - were suddenly cancelled last week without giving the hosts or attendees a clear reason for the move.
Two other library staff, who were not present in the meeting, said they had been told that is what occurred by other staff members who were present. State Library Victoria did not answer specific questions about whether Duldig or the board had discussed Sakr’s views, or whether concerns were relayed to staff.The library said the postponement of the events was unrelated to the political views expressed by the writers involved, including Sakr.
The library’s head of audience engagement, Angharad Wynne-Jones, resigned last Thursday. Three library sources said her resignation was directly related to postponement of the events. Wynne-Jones did not respond to questions, and the library said it did not comment on individual staff. “As State Library Victoria staff, we object to library leadership’s decision to ‘defer’ Teen Writing Bootcamp events seemingly because of the authors’ support for Palestine,” the letter from staff says.