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Australian City Council Pulls Funding for Local Music Awards After Anti-Israel Song ‘River to Sea’ Wins Top Honor
Anti-Israel protesters hold a banner that says, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” standing in front of the president’s palace in Warsaw, Poland, on Nov. 5, 2023. Photo: IMAGO/Marek Antoni Iwanczuk via Reuters Connect
The Brisbane City Council (BCC) in Australia pulled funding for the Queensland Music Awards (QMAs) on Thursday effective immediately in response to a controversial anti-Israel song titled “River to Sea” that won an award at the annual ceremony this week.
The BCC also revoked funding for the QMAs after jazz pianist-composer Kellee Green, who won the award for “River to Sea,” made a series of antisemitic and anti-Israel comments in her acceptance speech at this year’s award ceremony on Tuesday night.
Established in 2006, the QMAs celebrate emerging artists based in Queensland, located in northeastern Australia.
Brisbane’s Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner made the announcement about withdrawing funds for the QMAs in a released statement on Thursday. “The promotion of antisemitism at Tuesday night’s Queensland Music Awards was utterly shameful and divisive,” he said.
“The decision to hand a major prize to an offensively titled anti-Jewish song raises serious questions about whether the awards have been hijacked by extremists,” Schrinner added. “Allowing such vile hate speech to occur shows the awards seem to be no longer capable of achieving their own stated goal to ‘promote diversity and inclusion.’ As a result, we will be immediately withdrawing our funding and support for these awards. I want Brisbane to be a safe and inclusive destination for everyone and the kind of divisive and offensive actions on display at last night’s awards have no place in our city.”
At the 2025 QMAs on Tuesday night, Green won the jazz award for her instrumental piece “River to Sea,” which has no vocals or lyrics. The title of the song is a nod to the anti-Israel slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which is widely recognized as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state — located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea — and for it to be replaced with “Palestine.” Green wore to the QMAs an outfit that boldly featured the colors of the Palestinian flag.
During her acceptance speech at the event, held at Fortitude Music Hall, Green talked about her inspiration for “River to Sea.” At the same time, she accused Israel of “76 years of genocide against the people of Palestine,” and alleged that the Australian government has participated in war crimes for supporting Israel, as the Jewish state continues to fight Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip who perpetrated the deadly terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Green also claimed the government of Australia “supports the mass slaughter and ethnic cleansing of an entire race of people.”
“I can’t accept this award for this piece without acknowledging the reason for its creation,” Green 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. I urge you to please educate yourselves about this ongoing genocide and take action by protesting, contacting MPs — some of whom are here tonight — and boycotting where you can so this government knows that these war crimes are occurring without our consent and not in our name.” Her comments elicited loud applause from the audience.
“‘Never Again’ means never again for anybody,” she added, referencing the phrase most notably used in association with the Holocaust and efforts to never forget the genocide that took place during World War II. Green ended the speech by proclaiming, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The phrase has been previously condemned by the Australian Senate, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong labeled it as “hate speech,” and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said the use of the anti-Israel slogan has “no place in Australia.”
Green’s acceptance speech was denounced by Queensland Holocaust Museum Chairman Jason Steinberg, who is also president of the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies. The pro-Israel organization called on organizers of the QMAs to revoke Green’s award. Green deactivated all her social media accounts following the controversy this week.
Kris Stewart, CEO of QMusic, which are producers of the annual awards ceremony, said in a statement on Thursday that he is “deeply saddened” by BCC’s decision to pull funding for the show. He explained that the QMAs are judged by more than 100 music industry professionals from across the country and, “to ensure a fair and transparent process,” they are only provided with a song title, artist name, and audio recording.
“No additional context or background information about the artist or song is shared,” he added. “While we recognize that this phrase [‘River to Sea’] carries political connotations, the title did not stand out as divisive within the volume of songs received. We acknowledge the sensitive nature of this moment and the impact it has had on some members of our community. We do not wish for the Queensland Music Awards to be a platform for political debate. The intention of the event is, and always has been, to celebrate the work of our state’s artists and industry.”
Stewart noted that QMusic is open to meeting with members of the BCC to further discuss the incident and “explore a constructive and positive path forward — one that continues to uphold the value of the arts and the importance of supporting Queensland artists.”
“We have heard and acknowledge the feedback shared by members of the community in recent days,” he further stated. “As custodians of the QMAs, we remain committed to learning from this experience and ensuring the integrity and purpose of the awards are upheld.”
The QMAs are also supported by the Queensland Government and the federal government.
The post Australian City Council Pulls Funding for Local Music Awards After Anti-Israel Song ‘River to Sea’ Wins Top Honor first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Eyes Bringing Azerbaijan, Central Asian Nations into Abraham Accords, Sources Say
US President Donald Trump points a finger as he delivers remarks in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, July 31, 2025. Photo: Kent Nishimura via Reuters Connect
President Donald Trump’s administration is actively discussing with Azerbaijan the possibility of bringing that nation and some Central Asian allies into the Abraham Accords, hoping to deepen their existing ties with Israel, according to five sources with knowledge of the matter.
As part of the Abraham Accords, inked in 2020 and 2021 during Trump’s first term in office, four Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel after US mediation.
Azerbaijan and every country in Central Asia, by contrast, already have longstanding relations with Israel, meaning that an expansion of the accords to include them would largely be symbolic, focusing on strengthening ties in areas like trade and military cooperation, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Such an expansion would reflect Trump’s openness to pacts that are less ambitious than his administration’s goal to convince regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia to restore ties with Israel while war rages in Gaza.
The kingdom has repeatedly said it would not recognize Israel without steps towards Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state.
Another key sticking point is Azerbaijan’s conflict with its neighbor Armenia, since the Trump administration considers a peace deal between the two Caucasus nations as a precondition to join the Abraham Accords, three sources said.
While Trump officials have publicly floated several potential entrants into the accords, the talks centered on Azerbaijan are among the most structured and serious, the sources said. Two of the sources argued a deal could be reached within months or even weeks.
Trump’s special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, in March to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Aryeh Lightstone, a key Witkoff aide, met Aliyev later in the spring in part to discuss the Abraham Accords, three of the sources said.
As part of the discussions, Azerbaijani officials have contacted officials in Central Asian nations, including in nearby Kazakhstan, to gauge their interest in a broader Abraham Accords expansion, those sources said. It was not clear which other countries in Central Asia – which includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan – were contacted.
The State Department, asked for comment, did not discuss specific countries, but said expanding the accords has been one of the key objectives of Trump. “We are working to get more countries to join,” said a US official.
The Azerbaijani government declined to comment.
The White House, the Israeli foreign ministry and the Kazakhstani embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Any new accords would not modify the previous Abraham Accords deals signed by Israel.
OBSTACLES REMAIN
The original Abraham Accords – inked between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan – were centered on restoration of ties. The second round of expansion appears to be morphing into a broader mechanism designed to expand US and Israeli soft power.
Wedged between Russia to the north and Iran to the south, Azerbaijan occupies a critical link in trade flows between Central Asia and the West. The Caucasus and Central Asia are also rich in natural resources, including oil and gas, prompting various major powers to compete for influence in the region.
Expanding the accords to nations that already have diplomatic relations with Israel may also be a means of delivering symbolic wins to a president who is known to talk up even relatively small victories.
Two sources described the discussions involving Central Asia as embryonic – but the discussions with Azerbaijan as relatively advanced.
But challenges remain and there is no guarantee a deal will be reached, particularly with slow progress in talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The two countries, which both won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh – an Azerbaijani region that had a mostly ethnic-Armenian population – broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia.
In 2023, Azerbaijan retook Karabakh, prompting about 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. Both sides have since said they want to sign a treaty on a formal end to the conflict.
Primarily Christian Armenia and the US have close ties, and the Trump administration is wary of taking action that could upset authorities in Yerevan.
Still, US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump himself, have argued that a peace deal between those two nations is near.
“Armenia and Azerbaijan, we worked magic there,” Trump told reporters earlier in July. “And it’s pretty close.”
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Trump Reaffirms Support for Morocco’s Sovereignty Over Western Sahara
A Polisario fighter sits on a rock at a forward base, on the outskirts of Tifariti, Western Sahara, Sept. 9, 2016. Photo: Reuters / Zohra Bensemra / File.
US President Donald Trump has reaffirmed support for Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, saying a Moroccan autonomy plan for the territory was the sole solution to the disputed region, state news agency MAP said on Saturday.
The long-frozen conflict pits Morocco, which considers the territory as its own, against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which seeks an independent state there.
Trump at the end of his first term in office recognized the Moroccan claims to Western Sahara, which has phosphate reserves and rich fishing grounds, as part of a deal under which Morocco agreed to normalize its relations with Israel.
His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, made clear in April that support for Morocco on the issue remained US policy, but these were Trump’s first quoted remarks on the dispute during his second term.
“I also reiterate that the United States recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara and supports Morocco’s serious, credible and realistic autonomy proposal as the only basis for a just and lasting solution to the dispute,” MAP quoted Trump as saying in a message to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.
“Together we are advancing shared priorities for peace and security in the region, including by building on the Abraham Accords, combating terrorism and expanding commercial cooperation,” Trump said.
As part of the Abraham Accords signed during Trump’s first term, four Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel after US mediation.
In June this year, Britain became the third permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to back an autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty for the territory after the U.S. and France.
Algeria, which has recognized the self-declared Sahrawi Republic, has refused to take part in roundtables convened by the U.N. envoy to Western Sahara and insists on holding a referendum with independence as an option.
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Israel Says Its Missions in UAE Remain Open Despite Reported Security Threats
President Isaac Herzog meets on Dec. 5, 2022, with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. Photo: GPO/Amos Ben Gershom
i24 News – Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that its missions to the United Arab Emirates are open on Friday and representatives continue to operate at the embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate in Dubai in cooperation with local authorities.
This includes, the statement underlined, ensuring the protection of Israeli diplomats.
On Thursday, reports appeared in Israeli media that Israel was evacuating most of its diplomatic staff in the UAE after the National Security Council heightened its travel warning for Israelis staying in the Gulf country for fear of an Iranian or Iran-sponsored attacks.
“We are emphasizing this travel warning given our understanding that terrorist organizations (the Iranians, Hamas, Hezbollah and Global Jihad) are increasing their efforts to harm Israel,” the NSC said in a statement.
After signing the Abraham Accords with Israel in 2020, the UAE has been among the closest regional allies of the Jewish state.
Israel is concerned about its citizens and diplomats being targeted in retaliatory attacks following its 12-day war against Iran last month.
Earlier this year, the UAE sentenced three citizens of Uzbekistan to death for last year’s murder of Israeli-Moldovan rabbi Zvi Cohen.