18C ACTION ON CALL FOR ETHNIC CLEANSING FROM THE “RIVER TO THE SEA”
Since 7 October 2023, thousands of Jewish Australians have been victimised, harassed and racially vilified. Businesses have been boycotted and people’s safety threatened.
In this context Alon Cassuto, CEO of the Zionist Federation of Australia, a dual citizen of Australia and Israel, today lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission against Mary Kostakidis, acclaimed SBS newsreader for more than 20 years.
The complaint relates to Mary Kostakidis sharing a call by Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of the proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah, for the ethnic cleansing of Jews “from the river to the sea”.
In a televised speech in Beirut earlier this year, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah celebrated Hamas’s massacre of 1200 Israelis on 7 October 2023, delivering a message to Jewish Israelis:
“Here, it’s going to be very difficult for you. If you want to be secure, if you want to feel secure, you have an American passport, go back to the United States. You have a British passport, go back to the UK. Here you don’t have a future, from the river to the sea the land of Palestine is for the Palestinian people, and the Palestinian people only.”
Mary Kostakidis republished this speech twice on social media, including with her own commentary.
“For the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, this rally cry is not a call for peace or equality – he means the ethnic cleansing of the seven million Jews who live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea”, said Mr Cassuto.
“It is irresponsible and dangerous for a person with Mary Kostakidis’ influence and authority to repeat calls by a terrorist for Jews to be ethnically cleansed ‘from the river to the sea’. This conduct reproduces an overseas conflict in Australia and is unacceptable.”
Mr Cassuto’s lawyers asked Mary Kostakidis for an acknowledgement that what she has done is unlawful, along with an apology to the Australian Jewish community. They received no response.
Since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, Mary Kostakidis has shared extreme propaganda with her 30,000 X followers, including a Hamas pamphlet that sought to justify its sadistic massacre. She has also shared conspiracy theories that the investigation by The Guardian into the systematic use of rape and sexual violence by Hamas on 7 October “doesn’t pass the sniff test”.
“For the sake of the precious multicultural nation that we have, we must stand up against racial hatred, no matter who is being targeted, and no matter who is spreading it,” Mr Cassuto said.
Mr Cassuto is represented by Arnold Bloch Leibler (Leon Zwier and Raphael Leibler), and barristers Michael Borsky KC and Colette Mintz.
The speech by the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, and as it was shared by Mary Kostakidis, is available here. A broadcast quality video of the media conference is available here.
Profile image of Alon Cassuto here.
