Former SBS newsreader Mary Kostakidis draws big crowd of pro-Palestinian supporters for anti-Semitism case

Sky News AU

29-07-2025

A court has heard former SBS newsreader Mary Kostakidis spread 'anti-Semitic' conspiracy theories and promoted proscribed terrorist groups on her public X account.
The journalist fronted the Federal Court for the first time in a bid to get the racial discrimination case brought by Zionist Federation Australia CEO Alon Cassuto struck out.
Ms Kostakidis is accused of breaching section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act in two posts she shared to her account in January last year.
The posts featured video of a speech given by the since-killed leader of Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, in which he calls for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel.
'Here you don't have a future,' Mr Nasrallah says in an English translation of the speech. 'And from the river to the sea, the land of Palestine is for the Palestinian people and for the Palestinian people only.'
Ms Kostakidis added the comment 'The Israeli government getting a taste of its own medicine' to one of her posts.
Her barrister Stephen Keim SC told the court the comment was clearly directed at the Israeli government and not a criticism of Jewish people.
He compared his client's 'reporting' of the speech to media reporting US President Donald Trump's notorious 'grab them by the p****' comments that were caught on camera before the 2016 US election.
'We argue that the reporting of statements by a well-known spokesperson for a party in a major regional conflict is an essential part of news reporting, which may involve reporting offensive statements,' Mr Keim said.
'For example, the widely reported Access Hollywood tape of the current president of the United States."
Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets at Israel since Hamas' terror attacks on the Jewish state, including in heavily populated civilian areas, killing at least 24 people and causing the displacement of 70,000 others, Mr Cassuto's lawyers submitted in documents filed in court.
Israel confirmed it had killed Nasrallah in an airstrike on Beirut in September 2024.
Mr Cassuto's barrister Michael Borsky KC told the court while Ms Kostakidis used to be a newsreader, the post was 'not a straightforward news report.'
'Her sharing these posts, particularly with the commentary we allege is a form of endorsement – saying Israel, [the] Israeli government getting some of its own medicine with the genocide it started – is relevant to the question your Honour will at trial need to determine…,' Mr Borsky said.
Mr Borsky said Jewish Australians and those of Israeli national extraction – his client is both – could arguably be offended or intimidated by calls for the only Jewish state to be 'erased off the map.'
Mr Cassuto has argued Ms Kostakidis' offence was 'magnified' due to a series of other offensive posts shared to her X account, which has more than 44,000 followers and on which she posts prolifically and daily about Israel.
Other posts cited in the case include those resharing justifications for the October 7 attacks as 'understandable' and akin to a 'jail break', ones in which Ms Kostakidis appears to express 'support' for Hamas and Hezbollah and conspiracy theories including that convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was an 'agent of Israel' and Israel was responsible for the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy.
Mr Keim drew on a judgment earlier this month in the racial discrimination case against Sydney-based Islamic hate preacher Wissam Haddad, in which another Federal Court judge, Justice Angus Stewart, said 'it is not anti-Semitic to criticise Israel, just as much to blame Jews for the actions of Israel is anti-Semitic.'
Mr Borsky countered that it was a matter of 'some subtlety and delicacy and reasonable minds can differ' on whether political criticism of Israel cannot be anti-Semitic.
'Mr Cassuto would, if it became relevant at the trial … would challenge the proposition,' Mr Borsky said.
'It is not part of our case that to criticise Israel is necessarily anti-Semitic ... But the fact that some acts done otherwise than in private might be characterised as criticisms of Israel, or even the Israeli government or the Israeli Defence Force, does not inoculate them from any even arguable contravention of 18C.'
He gave examples of tweets in which Zionism had been equated with Nazism, which he said was a 'particularly offensive' comparison for Jews.
'[It's] deliberately selected by many anti-Semites for that reason for the very reason that it accuses the victims of the Holocaust with committing the crime,' Mr Borsky said.
Justice Stephen McDonald observed that 'spreading anti-Israel conspiracy theories, while they're related to Israel as their topic, might be potentially anti-Semitic' and that the relationship between Jews and Israel was 'different from the relationship between many other states and ethnicities.'
Ms Kostakidis was cheered on at her arrival to court by about 50 supporters, many of whom were waving Palestinian flags, wearing keffiyeh and holding signs accusing Israel of 'genocide'.
Outside court, Ms Kostakidis thanked supporters.
'I'm a strong believer in freedom of the press and freedom of political expression,' Ms Kostakidis said. 'I will defend my right to report the news and the right of every journalist to do so and the right of every Australian to engage in public debate.'
In his own statement outside court, Mr Cassuto said the case was not about free speech, but 'hate speech'.
'Ms Kostakidis shared the calls of a proscribed terror organisation to ethnically cleanse Jews and Israelis and it's important that we hold her to account,' Mr Cassuto said.
'It's deeply offensive when someone with the platform and following of Mary Kostakidis shares hate speech and shares the calls of a proscribed terror organisation. We've all seen how hatred that starts with words ends in violence. For the sake of every Australian, we've got to stand up against racial hatred no matter who is being targeted and who is spreading it.'
Justice McDonald will hand down his decision on whether the matter will proceed to trial or be struck out at a later date.