Brisbane Lord Mayor, Adrian Schrinner, has today declared the Council will strip its $25,000 funding of the Queensland Music Awards (QMA) over what he says is the event’s promotion of anti-Semitism.
Jazz composer and Brigidine College arts department director, Kellee Green (pictured), won a major music award at Tuesday’s QMA event for a seven-minute pro-Palestinian song entitled ‘River to Sea’. The Brisbane teacher followed up the win with a speech during which she accused the Federal Government of supporting war crimes.
In part of her speech, Ms Green reportedly stated, “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”.
Lord Mayor Schrinner says the “promotion of anti-Semitism” at the awards was “utterly shameful and divisive”.
“Music should be a positive force that brings people together, not tear them apart,” 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.
“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’.
“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.
“As a result, we will be immediately withdrawing our funding and support for these awards.”
The QMA has not yet commented publicly on the controversy. The awards also receive funding from the Queensland and Federal Governments.
