Khawaja backs Australian cricket journalist dumped for Gaza posts

SYDNEY, FEB 4: Australian Test opener Usman Khawaja has come out swinging for a cricket journalist dropped from radio coverage of the Sri Lanka tour for retweeting posts about the conflict in Gaza.
Peter Lalor said Australia's Sports Entertainment Network (SEN) told him his retweets were imbalanced, insensitive to one side and had sparked many complaints.
In a statement Monday, Lalor said network boss Craig Hutchison told him that he had "made people feel unsafe" and could not work for the station any more as a freelancer.

The Australian journalist said he was not anti-Semitic and felt compassion to both sides living in fear in the conflict "yet I cannot remain quiet when so many innocent people are being slaughtered".Khawaja subsequently posted the story on social media, saying "standing up for the people of Gaza is not anti-Semitic nor does it have anything to do with my Jewish brothers and sisters in Australia".    —AFP