Roof body slams music awards for awarding anti-Israel piece
'This is yet another example of hate speech masquerading as art or activism,' the QJBD said
The Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies (QJBD) has criticised the Queensland Music Awards, condemning the decision to honour jazz musician Kellee Green for her controversial piece “River to Sea”.
QJBD said the award recognises a work that promotes antisemitic rhetoric, centring on the phrase “river to the sea”, which is used as a call for Israel’s destruction.
“The phrase ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free’ is not a benign slogan but an explicit call for the eradication of Israel, stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,” QJBD said in a statement. “It is a rallying cry for Hamas, a terrorist organisation responsible for the massacre of 1200 people and the abduction of over 250 hostages on 7 October 2023.”
The phrase has drawn sharp criticism from senior federal politicians. Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has branded the underlying slogan “hate speech”, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has stated it has “no place in Australia”.
The Senate has formally denounced the phrase “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free”, arguing it opposes Israel’s right to exist and potentially intimidates Jewish Australians.
QJBD has called on award organisers to rescind the honour and urged government funding bodies to investigate how such an award could be granted.
“This is yet another example of hate speech masquerading as art or activism,” the QJBD said. “We’ve seen the sharpest rise in antisemitism in our community’s 160-year history since 7 October.”
Green, who said her piece was inspired by what she terms “years of Israeli genocide”, has reportedly encouraged boycotts against Israel and appropriated the Holocaust remembrance phrase “Never Again”, which the QJBD views as a deliberate misuse of Jewish historical trauma.
The Courier-Mail reported that during her acceptance speech at the awards on Tuesday night, she said, “Our own Government is complicit in war crimes by supporting Israel both in words and actions by allowing the export of weapons and weapon parts to Israel to directly kill innocent Palestinian men, women, and children.”
Award organisers have yet to respond to the QJBD’s demands.
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