The head of the Zionist Federation of Australia says he has lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission accusing the former SBS broadcaster Mary Kostakidis of breaching racial discrimination laws in social media posts.
But Kostakidis on Sunday night described the complaint as an attempt “to silence people like myself”.
She rejected the central accusation, which was related to two social media posts sharing a speech by the secretary general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, in which he used the phrase “from the river to the sea the land of Palestine is for the Palestinian people – and the Palestinian people only”.
In a statement on Sunday, the chief executive of the Zionist federation, Alon Cassuto, said it was “irresponsible and dangerous” for Kostakidis to repeat “calls by a terrorist for Jews to be ethnically cleansed”.
Kostakidis said the complaint was “completely misconstruing” her posts sharing the speech.
“Of course, I wasn’t promoting it. I was informing people. That’s what I’m supposed to do,” she told Guardian Australia.
“As a journalist, it’s my responsibility to show people what one side is saying. Is it not in our interests to know that?”
In its statement, the Zionist Federation of Australia said Kostakidis had made other social media posts that shared “extreme propaganda” with her 30,000 social media followers.
Kostakidis said criticisms of her social media posts had “completely misrepresented me” and had been presented without context.
The Zionist Federation said the decision to launch an action in the Human Rights Commission – under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act – came after lawyers for Cassuto had written to Kostakidis seeking “an acknowledgement that what she has done is unlawful, along with an apology to the Australian Jewish community”.
They said they received no response.
“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,” Cassuto said.
“This conduct reproduces an overseas conflict in Australia and is unacceptable.”
Kostakidis, who has been a vocal critic of the Israeli government over the Gaza war, said she was “pretty pissed off” about the complaint and indicated she would fight the case.
“They’re trying to silence people like myself, so that we allow them to just go on with the killing,” she said.
“If they can put me in my box, that’s going to frighten everyone else. People will think twice. All you can do is focus on what you think is right – that’s what I’ve done all my career and that’s what I’ll continue to do.”
Kostakidis said: “They’ve got the ball rolling. Let’s just see how it rolls out.”
