Presenter’s post offends

A PRESENTER on community radio station 3CR has come under fire from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) after posting a message on Facebook that appeared to justify the murder of Israeli border police officer Hadas Malka last Friday night.

The 23-year-old died after being critically injured in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem’s Old City.

The following day, Yousef Alreemawi, presenter of the Palestine Remembered show posted, “Maybe if she was not in her military uniform and gun on somebody else’s land trying to make their lives more miserable she could have spared herself this end.”

The program, broadcast on Saturday mornings from 9.30am to 10am, is co-presented by Nasser Mashni, treasurer of the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN).

Shortly after Alreemawi’s post, APAN promoted the show online, urging people to make donations to 3CR to help keep it on air.

According to an article on the station’s website, “The banks of the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River are Palestine’s natural borders, and it’s from this fact that From the River to the Sea [Palestine Remembered’s previous title] takes its name.”

Commenting on Alreemawi’s post, ECAJ research officer Julie Nathan told The AJN, “Any comment which in effect seeks to justify or excuse the murder of a young woman police officer is beyond disgraceful. The insensitivity and coarseness of this kind of discourse is an affront to basic human decency. 

“It is disturbing that the author of the comment has his own program on community radio station 3CR, which is also being promoted by the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network.”

Contacted by The AJN, APAN declined to comment on their promotion of the show. 3CR station manager Rachel Kirby also declined to comment.

Alreemawi had not responded to The AJN by the time it went to press.

AJN STAFF

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