A view of Sydney, Australia. Photo: Reuters/David Gray.
A Jewish volunteer radio host was fired from a community radio station in Sydney, Australia, after covering up a “Free Palestine” sticker on station equipment and refusing to describe the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in southern Israel as “resistance.”
Nicole, whose last name was not publicly shared for her safety, hosted a Latino music program in Spanish on Radio Skid Row, according to Sky News Australia, which was the first to reported on her firing. On Friday, the former radio host, who has Mexican and Israeli roots, talked about being fired in a video posted on social media.
“I just came out of a meeting with Radio Skid Row,” she said. “They basically just told me that if I cannot support the Oct. 7 attacks as ‘resistance’ and as something positive — basically saying also that it’s not true that anybody just killed or burned or anything — that if I cannot support the hostages being kept, then I don’t align with their values and I cannot be there. If I cannot support the fact that Israel doesn’t have a right to exist and that Jews don’t have a right to be in Israel, I can no longer be at their station.”
Radio Skid Row receives federal government funding from the Community Broadcasting Foundation and support from the City of Sydney Council. It broadcasts a weekly show called “Pulse of Palestine,” which examines “life under occupation and the global Palestinian resistance,” according to a description posted on the radio station’s website. The show is hosted by Palestinian activist Ahmed Alabadla and was previously titled “Red Inverted Triangle: Resistance, Intifada, Tahreer,” which is now the name of a podcast also hosted by Alabadla. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the red inverted triangle is a symbol used by Hamas and supporters of the terrorist organization to glorify its use of violence.
Radio Skid Row has deleted its Instagram account as of Tuesday but Sky News Australia noted that it has shared numerous anti-Israel posts on the social media platform, including one that glorified notorious Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled. A member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is an internationally designated terrorist organization, Khaled hijacked a Tel Aviv-bound plane in 1969 and attempted another hijacking in 1970 of an El Al flight.
Nicole told the Australian news outlet that Radio Skid Row manager Manu Montero called her in for a meeting after she covered up on station equipment a sticker that featured a Palestinian flag and the words “Free Palestine.”
During the meeting, Nicole apologized for covering the “Free Palestine” sticker before talking to management first. She discussed her opposition to the “Free Palestine” movement and its connection to vandalism and other forms of violence in Australia, and how it has made “Jewish people feel uneasy and safe in Sydney.” She also talked about being a Jewish person who had family murdered in the Holocaust. She told Sky News Australia that another person who Montero invited to the meeting, a woman, laughed at Nicole when she talked about the Jewish experience and her heritage.
Montero responded by talking about the radio station’s opposition to Israel, accusing the country of colonization and saying Israel does not have a right to exist, Nicole recalled. Her husband, who attended the meeting to support her, asked Montero if Nicole could continue hosting her Skid News show if she stayed away from discussing politics. Montero replied no, that she had to actively support the Free Palestine movement, speak about it and attend pro-Palestinian rallies. Montero also denied that Oct. 7 happened entirely, Nicole told Sky News Australia.
Radio Skid Row and Montero have not publicly commented on Nicole’s firing.
The post Jewish Radio Host in Australia Fired for Covering ‘Free Palestine’ Sticker, Refusing to Defend Oct. 7 Hamas Attack first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
