Mary Kostakidis has asked the federal court to strike out an “embarrassing” Zionist Federation of Australia racial discrimination claim on the grounds it fails to identify which race, ethnicity or nationality was offended by her social media posts about Israel.
The journalist’s interlocutory application said the claim is “embarrassing” because it is so ambiguous it could include ethnic Arabs who follow the Jewish faith or “a Jewish person who is ethnically Swedish”.
The former SBS newsreader has been accused by the ZFA of breaching the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) by sharing two X posts about a speech by the late Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah in January 2024. Kostakidis has not yet filed a defence but has asked the court to strike out the entire claim, or at least substantial parts of it.
The chief executive of the ZFA, Alon Cassuto, complained to the Human Rights Commission but the matter was not resolved and was escalated to the federal court.
Cassuto’s claim says the breach came when Kostakidis shared a video of a speech by Nasrallah on X and added: “The Israeli govt getting some of its own medicine. Israel has started something it can’t finish with this genocide.” A second post sharing the same video on 13 January is also part of the claim.
Kostakidis’ interlocutory application will be heard by Justice Stephen McDonald on Tuesday in Adelaide’s federal court.
In documents filed with the court, Kostakidis submitted that the RDA claim is so imprecise and ambiguous about Jewish people and citizens of Israel it could include “Arab ethnicity in the case of an Arab person who follows the Jewish faith” or “a Jewish person who is ethnically Swedish”.
The submission argues Zionism “is a political philosophy with many shades of meaning such that to identify as a Zionist says very little about a person’s beliefs and sensitivities”.
Cassuto submitted Kostakidis’ claim that Zionism is too vague to be defined is “without foundation and should be rejected”, according to his reply to the interlocutory application which was filed with the court.
“Zionism is, simply, the movement founded with the purpose of establishing a national home for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland and which now supports that national home,” Cassuto said.
Kostakidis submitted the number of persons who identify as Jewish is 116,967 or 0.46% of the total Australian population. As she has 28,000 followers on X, she submitted the number of Jewish people who were aware of one or both of the posts would be a total of 120 people.
Cassuto said Kostakidis “raises theoretical criticisms of form” to avoid dealing with the substance of the claim made against her, which is “obvious”.
“The pleaded reason for the impugned posts is: in the case of Australian Jews, their racial or ethnic origin as Jews; and in the case of Israelis in Australia, their national origin as Israelis,” the ZFA reply said.
“No other interpretation is fairly open. The fact that the respondent can point to the fact that an individual in each group may have more than one race or national or ethnic origin is plainly irrelevant.”
Cassuto alleges that since the 7 October attack, Kostakidis has posted on X “about Israel and/or Jews, including among other things spreading various antisemitic conspiracy theories. Those antisemitic conspiracy theories include that Israel controls the United States government, that Israel assassinated John F Kennedy, that there was an alliance between Zionists and the Nazis, and that Israeli Mossad agents were involved in the September 11 2001 attacks.”
“The pleaded case is clear,” the applicant said in response to the interlocutory application. “Ms Kostakidis has launched a wide-ranging but unjustified attack on a properly pleaded case. Mr Cassuto respectfully submits that the strike out application should be dismissed with costs, and Ms Kostakidis should be required to put on her defence so that his claim may be heard and determined at trial.”
