I’m not a huge fan of racial vilification laws (as distinct from incitement laws), such as Australia’s notorious Section 18C, but, if we must have them, then surely they must be equally applied to everyone? Yet, to date, there’s been a notable slant in the few prosecutions made under such laws. The most notorious case is Eatock v Bolt, in which the well-known columnist was sued for suggesting that obviously fair-skinned people were claiming to be Aboriginal to advance their careers.
Yet, when a mob of Muslims and Greens politicians chanted “Gas the Jews!” on the steps of the Sydney Opera House – surely a textbook example of “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people… because of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of the other person or of some or all of the people in the group” – police and politicians claimed there was no offence to answer.
When Islamic preachers in Sydney mosques openly vilified and urged violence against Jews, again, there was no case to answer.
It is surely just a coincidence that at least one-fifth of staff at the Australian Human Rights Commission are on the record as supporting Hamas.
The AHRC’s commitment to prosecuting the law fairly and without favour is about to be tested.
Australia’s racial vilification laws will be put to the test in a complaint against former SBS newsreader Mary Kostakidis, who is facing allegations she posted anti-Semitic hate speech on social media to her 30,000 followers, including reposting a video of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in which he said there was no place for Jews in Israel.
The complaint, filed with the Australian Human Rights Commission, claimed Ms Kostakidis engaged in a “campaign of vilification” that has caused harm to members of Jewish and Israeli communities in Australia.
Well, well, well, what a surprise: yet again, the new wave of the oldest hatred is being fanned by a taxpayer-funded doyen of the left.
Law firm Arnold Bloch Liebler said in a letter to Ms Kostakidis that she had engaged in “dishonest descriptions” of the events of October 7, including a post three days later suggesting Israel knowingly allowed the Hamas attack to occur to justify a retaliatory war; and she had denied Israeli women were raped in the attack […]
The letter notes Ms Kostakidis reposted a video of former weapons inspector Scott Ritter in which he supports Hamas and says: “Do I condemn Hamas? Hell no!”
Ms Kostakidis had also reposted tweets claiming pedophile Jeffery Epstein was an agent of Israel who “ran a honeypot for Mossad” and in June shared a theory that Israel was responsible for the assassinations of President John F Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy, asking “Why has Israel been avoided when discussing the Kennedy assassinations?”
The question must also be asked whether Kostakidis has crossed the line from vilification to actual incitement.
The letter cites the Nasrallah video as an “unlawful’ post under section 18C, saying the Hezbollah leader advocated “the ethnic cleansing of Jewish Israelis in Israel”.
Kostakidis is resorting to the usual mealy mouthed dodging of Jew-hating leftists caught with their brown shirt showing.
“I have been sharing the reports of extremely highly regarded independent journalists who have written about the absence of credible evidence of the claims of ‘systemic, widespread rape’ by Hamas on Oct 7.
“To be clear, I have never said there was No Rape. It is something I could never say – it would be a nonsense for anyone to make such a definitive statement.”
Ms Kostakidis said she had made it clear she was referring to claims of systemic rape.
Yes, you’re a denier. Hamas literally livestreamed what they did. We have the eyewitness testimony – the forensic evidence. There is no “absence of credible evidence”, only an absence of credible journalism and a total absence of human decency from the left.
She defended sharing the Nasrallah video, saying: “The statements he is making are identical to statements made by the Israeli leadership and members of the Knesset.”
The Australian
“But they did it too” (assuming that they even did) is not an excuse, you anti-Semitic clown.
We see you, lefties.
Now, we’ll wait and see if there really is one law for the left and another for the rest of us.
