Bigger fights lie ahead
Ending the case against Mary Kostakidis was not a defeat, but a recognition that far greater battles lie ahead.
When Zionist Federation of Australia CEO Alon Cassuto first lodged a formal complaint about Mary Kostakidis in July 2024, he was taking on arguably one of the most trusted faces in Australian journalism.
For decades Kostakidis read the news to the nation on SBS, and her name carried weight. Two years on, that is no longer the case.
Her feed now amplifies claims that reports of systemic sexual violence on October 7 were without merit, and reposts cheerleading for Hezbollah and Hamas.
Readers can draw their own conclusions about how far she has travelled. Most already have. So Cassuto’s decision to end his Federal Court case this month should not be mistaken for defeat.
He survived her attempt to have it thrown out, and a judge accepted that dressing hostility up as commentary on Israel does not automatically put it beyond the law.
She apologised.
A second, court-ordered apology was never going to change her mind or anyone else’s.
In fairness to Kostakidis, the case never tested her defences, and no court has found she broke the law.
Criticising Israel, even harshly, remains lawful, and it should. Justice McDonald was careful to say so, and this newspaper agrees.
But the bigger point is that the ground has shifted beneath everyone’s feet. When this case began, the argument that online hatred could spill into real-world violence was a warning. On December 14 last year at Bondi, it became a fact. Fifteen people were killed at a Chanukah celebration at one of the most famous beaches in Australia.
Against that, a trial over two posts on X by a former newsreader looks like a very small fight. The community and its leaders now face questions of far greater weight.
How do we keep our schools, shules and gatherings safe? How do we hold governments to the promises they made in the days after Bondi? How do we answer a Royal Commission that will report in December on how antisemitism became so normal in this country, and make sure its recommendations do not gather dust?
Those are the tests that matter now. Kostakidis will no doubt keep posting.
The rest of us have work to do.