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Organizers of Local Music Awards in Australia Vow to Back Anti-Israel Musician Despite City Funding Being Pulled
A protester holds a sign that reads, ”From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” during a pro-Palestinian emergency demonstration outside the Consulate General of Israel in Houston, Texas, on March 19, 2025. Photo: Reginald Mathalone via Reuters Connect
Organizers of a music awards ceremony that celebrates artists in northeastern Australia said it is their “priority” to support an avid anti-Israel jazz musician, who won a top honor at the recent show for her anti-Israel composition and then repeatedly criticized the Jewish state in her acceptance speech.
QMusic, which is the Australian state of Queensland’s music industry development association and the organizer of the Queensland Music Awards (QMAs), sent a letter to its members on Sunday in support of “River to Sea” composer and pianist Kellee Green. The letter was sent after the Brisbane City Council (BCC) in Australia revoked funding worth $25,000 (US $15,755) for the QMAs effective immediately because Green’s seven-minute instrumental compassion won the jazz award at the annual ceremony on March 25.
A further $450,000 (USD $283,590) in annual funding to QMusic is also under review, according to The Guardian. Queensland’s Arts Minister John-Paul Langbroek said in a recent statement that the awards show “should have never been the place for this divisive commentary to occur.”
“There are consequences for words and actions,” he added. “I have sought an explanation from QMusic. I will be questioning the awards process, current eligibility criteria, and comments made at the awards ceremony.”
In the letter to QMusic members, CEO Kris Stewart wrote: “One of our QMAs winners and members, Kellee Green, who, along with the QMAs, has received a lot of media attention in the days since the awards. Supporting Kellee is a priority, and I apologize for the delay in sharing this update with our members.”
“We have remained in regular contact with Kellee following the QMAs to ensure she is supported and has access to professional support services,” Stewart added in part. “The safety and wellbeing of our members and the wider music community is our shared responsibility … This moment serves as a reminder of the importance of a strong, united music community.”
Green, who is also a teacher at a private Catholic girls’ school, attended the QMAs on March 25 wearing an ensemble that prominently featured the colors of the Palestinian flag. The title of her composition “River to Sea” is a nod to the anti-Israel slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The phrase is largely 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.”
In her acceptance speech after “River to Sea” won the jazz award, the Brisbane-based artist accused Israel of “76 years of genocide against the people of Palestine.” She claimed Israel “kill[s] innocent Palestinian men, women, and children,” and called for a boycott of the Jewish state. She also criticized the Australian government for supporting Israel. She alleged that Australia is “complicit in war crimes,” and “supports the mass slaughter and ethnic cleansing of an entire race of people.” Green ended the speech by proclaiming, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Her comments were condemned by Jewish groups as well as Brisbane’s Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner, who called Green’s “promotion of antisemitism” at the QMAs “utterly shameful and divisive.” He criticized QMusic for giving an award “to an offensively titled anti-Jewish song” and allowing “vile hate speech” at the QMAs. Stewart responded to the backlash about Green’s song winning an award by saying that while QMA judges “recognize that this phrase [‘River to Sea’] carries political connotations, the title did not stand out as divisive within the volume of songs received.”
Brendan Cahill, the principal of the school Brigidine College in Indooroopilly where Green teaches, issued a statement to parents of students last week announcing that Green had agreed to take a leave of absence from the school, The Guardian reported. Green assured him that she had not made any political statements to students, and the school is further investigating Green’s “personal musical recordings,” Cahill added. The school has also been in contact with the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies, which has called for QMusic to revoke Green’s award. Green’s website has since gone private, and she deactivated her social media accounts.
More than 2,000 members of the music industry have signed a statement in solidarity with Green that was launched by Taiwanese-Australian composer Matt Hsu, the founder of Brisbane’s Obscure Orchestra. A number of pro-Palestinian groups — such as the Facebook group called Teachers and School Staff for Palestine NSW — have also come out in support of Green and her song amid the controversy.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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