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.

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An anti-Israel demonstrator holds a placard at a rally in front of the New York Times building following the death of Hossam Shabat, a Palestinian journalist who was affiliated with the Hamas terrorist organization. Photo: Jimin Kim / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect

The claim that Israel is “killing journalists” has become a staple of newspaper opinion pages, campus protests, and claims by advocacy groups.

For example, on March 24, 2025, a group called the Committee to Protect Journalists — whose board of directors includes Lydia Polgreen, Diane Brayton, and Geraldine Fabrikant Mertz of the New York Times — issued a statement headlined, “CPJ denounces Israel’s killing of 2 more Gaza journalists in return to war.”

“CPJ is appalled that we are once again seeing Palestinians weeping over the bodies of dead journalists in Gaza,” said CPJ’s Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “This nightmare in Gaza has to end. The international community must act fast to ensure that journalists are kept safe and hold Israel to account for the deaths of Hossam Shabat and Mohammed Mansour, whose killings may have been targeted. Journalists are civilians and it is illegal to attack them in a war zone.”

The New York Times news coverage was basically indistinguishable from the Committee to Protect Journalists’ press release. A Times news article credited to Hiba Yazbek and Bilal Shbair, with reporting contributed from Istanbul by Iyad Abuheweila, says, “On Monday, Al Jazeera reported that Hussam Shabat, a journalist who contributed to its coverage of the war, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his car in northern Gaza. At least 208 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Gaza government press office.”

The Times dispatch goes on: “Videos circulating online and verified by the New York Times show the apparently lifeless bodies of Mr. Shabat and two other men, as well as a donkey that had been pulling a cart, on a dusty road in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza. Next to them is a car pocked with what appear to be bullet or shrapnel holes, with an Al Jazeera emblem and the letters ‘TV’ on the windshield. A man shouts Mr. Shabat’s name and shakes his body, trying to get a response, while others carry away a person whose condition is unclear.”

What the Times news article entirely omits is that the Israel Defense Forces identifies Shabat as a Hamas terrorist. “Don’t let the press vest confuse you, Hossam was a terrorist,” the IDF said in a social media post. “Here is a document published in October 2024 proving Hossam’s affiliation with Hamas,” the message notes, along with a post listing him as having completed military training and being a member of a Hamas company.

A social media account of Yaakov Harshkovitz posted, “This terrorist, Hossam Shabat, from Hamas Beit Hanoun Battalion, who was also employed as a Journalist for Al-Jazeera, tried to kill me with a sniper rifle, at least twice. He was one of the most dangerous terrorists in our area, he was a professional sniper, he took part of terror missions against Israel.”

The Times news article reporting Shabat’s death is riddled with plenty of other problems, too. It doesn’t mention that Al Jazeera is controlled by the government of Qatar, or that, according to an interview, Shabat defined his role as a “journalist” as “documenting the occupation’s crimes.” The Committee to Protect Journalists also gets funding from Al Jazeera — that is, the Qatari government, according to its annual report. What are three New York Times people doing on the board of a charity that raises money from Qatar to issue press releases denouncing Israel when Israel kills a Hamas terrorist?

The Times article features interviews with Gazans about their suffering. But it includes no interviews or questions about whether the Gazans blame Hamas for not releasing the Israeli and foreign hostages or for not surrendering. If the Times has full unfettered access to Gazans for newsgathering purposes, why not ask them a full and complete portfolio of questions, rather than just, essentially, “please describe your suffering in a way that makes you look sympathetic so Israel can be blamed?” The answer is surely that, as the Times Jerusalem bureau chief, Patrick Kingsley, once acknowledged to readers, “Hamas restricts journalists in Gaza.”

The Times double standard is also on display in the article. It reports, “Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday that 61 people were killed in Israeli bombardments over the past day, a day after it said the death toll in the enclave had surpassed 50,000 since the war began almost 18 months ago. The ministry’s figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.” Then it reports, “The Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday that its troops had killed several fighters in Tal al-Sultan and raided a site it said was used as a Hamas command and control center. It did not provide evidence of its claims, which could not be independently verified.”

Only the Israelis, not the Gazans, get the “did not provide evidence of its claims, which could not be independently verified” treatment. And the health ministry is referred to simply as the health ministry, not the health ministry controlled by the Hamas terrorist organization.

Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.

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Israel Defense Forces soldier Hillel Nehemiah Ofen died during training near the central city of Elad, Aug. 14, 2023. Photo: Screenshot

The modern thinker and social philosopher Brené Brown writes: “True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.” It’s a powerful idea — that real belonging isn’t about fitting in; it’s about being seen, accepted, and valued for exactly who you are.

In a world where we’re constantly encouraged to edit ourselves, curate our lives, and conform to expectations, this kind of authentic connection can feel rare — even revolutionary.

I’ve spent the last few days haunted by a simple, handwritten note. It wasn’t particularly long and didn’t come from a famous philosopher or great thinker. But it carried more meaning than a hundred speeches ever could.

It came from the backpack of Hillel Nehemiah Ofen, a 20-year-old IDF soldier who tragically collapsed and died during a training exercise last week. The day after Hillel’s funeral, Israeli journalist and author Tsur Ehrlich shared a remarkable discovery on social media: a handwritten note found in Hillel’s backpack.

“This note,” Ehrlich wrote on Facebook, “belongs in the pocket of every Jew. It’s a profound meditation on identity, on life, on what it means to be part of something bigger than yourself. In the midst of a kind of social heatstroke that’s overtaken us, Hillel’s words are like a cool drink of water — reviving, grounding, and deeply human.”

The note began with two powerful words: “Ani Shayach!”— “I belong.”

And it didn’t stop there. Hillel expanded the thought with breathtaking simplicity: “I belong — to my family, to my people, to the land of Israel. I belong to love. I belong to fear. I belong to hope and to disappointment. I belong to joy and to pain. I belong to this moment.”

Who writes like that? It’s profound. The thoughtful words of a soldier in the prime of life, reflecting on his future, somehow channel something timeless — even eternal.

In a world increasingly obsessed with individualism, self-branding, and curating flawless images for public consumption, here was a young man who had peeled all of that away. No filters. No hashtags. Just a raw, honest declaration of connection — to people, to place, to purpose.

And that’s when it struck me: this wasn’t just a private reflection scribbled by a young man on the cusp of adulthood. It was a sacred manifesto — reminding himself, and all of us, that real strength doesn’t come from standing apart. It comes from showing up. For each other. For our communities. For something greater than ourselves.

And as fate (or providence) would have it, this week’s Torah portion, Pekudei, makes precisely that point — in a different register, but no less powerful. Let me explain.

Pekudei is the final portion in the Book of Exodus — and let’s be honest, it’s the part many people skim or skip altogether. It’s filled with endless inventories of materials used in the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary the Israelites built in the wilderness. Gold clasps, silver sockets, blue and purple yarn, lists of beams and curtains — it reads like divine DIY instructions for a holy IKEA project.

But buried in all that detail is something deeply profound. Because the Mishkan wasn’t just a mobile synagogue — it was a collective creation, a spiritual home that every Jew had a stake in.

The wood was donated. The fabrics were hand-woven by members of the community. The silver came from the half-shekel that everyone contributed — rich or poor, no exceptions. Every person was part of it. Every soul was counted. Every Jew belonged.

And here’s the point: God doesn’t need a house. Let’s be honest — the Mishkan wasn’t for Him. It was for them. The people needed it. They needed a place that declared: We are here. We matter. We belong.

Just like Hillel Nehemiah Ofen. His quiet note, tucked into a backpack, was his own small contribution to the broader Mishkan — a deeply personal acknowledgment of his role in his family, his people, and his country. And in making that contribution, he uncovered something essential: “I belong.”

Hillel wrote it without fanfare, without drama — just truth. In doing so, he echoed Pekudei’s deeper message: that belonging doesn’t just happen. It’s not accidental. It’s something we must build and recognize — with care, with intention, thread by thread, soul by soul.

And maybe that’s what we’ve started to forget in our modern world. We’ve built towers of success, of status, of innovation. But somewhere along the way, we’ve stopped noticing the granular, sacred details — the threads and clasps that bind us to one another.

The Mishkan wasn’t about the grandeur of the finished product. It was about the togetherness, the humility, and the shared identity embedded in every piece. It was a space where everyone mattered. A space where everyone belonged.

Hillel saw that — and with his passing, he gave us that message. His note, written for himself, wasn’t just about himself. It was a blueprint, made up of feelings and fears and hopes — with space in it for everyone. It included not only love and pride, but also doubt, pain, and vulnerability. He understood what it meant to be whole and part of something holy.

And here’s the deeper truth: belonging isn’t simply a warm, fuzzy feeling. It’s an obligation. It’s on each of us to make space for others, to invite them in, to say: You are part of this, just like I’m part of this. You matter. You are not alone.

That’s what the Mishkan did. That’s what Hillel’s note does. And that’s what we must do.

So, here’s a thought for this Shabbat, as we read Pekudei and close out Sefer Shemot: Let’s ask ourselves — where is my Mishkan? What am I building that brings people in? That helps others feel seen, valued, and connected enough to say, “I belong,” as Hillel did so simply and so powerfully. “I belong — to my family, to my community, to my people, to this moment.”

We need to remember that we are all architects of belonging. Every kind word, every act of generosity, every moment of presence — these are the silver sockets and golden threads of a modern-day Mishkan.

May we merit to build it with the same love, clarity, and quiet strength that Hillel carried in his heart. And may we all one day look around — at our homes, our communities, our people — and say, in unison and without hesitation: “Ani Shayach.” I belong.

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