A discussion on Australia’s role and responsibilities under international law during armed conflicts.
TIME:
Doors open at 5:45pm for a 6:30pm start till 9:30pm
DATE:
Thursday 11 June 2026
LOCATION:
Main Auditorium, Zenith Theatre
Cnr Mcintosh St & Railway St, Chatswood NSW 2067
TICKETS:
$15. $25. $50. Booking Link
This event is co-hosted by Amnesty International Australia and the ANU Law School.
Australia, International Law and Armed Conflict
Speakers:
Adjunct Professor Chris Sidoti is a leading human rights advocate and legal expert. He served as Australian Human Rights Commissioner (1995-2000), Australian Law Reform Commissioner (1992-1995) and was the founding Director of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1987-1992). Internationally, he was a member of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (2017-2019) and currently is a Commissioner on the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.
Professor Emily Crawford is an internationally recognised expert in international law at Sydney Law School, specialising in international humanitarian and criminal law. In 2023, she was awarded the Max Plank-Cambridge Prize for International Law for her outstanding research contributions.
Event Chair:
Rawan Arraf is an international human rights lawyer. Rawan founded the Australian Centre for International Justice, Australia’s first international justice legal centre where she is the Executive Director and Principal Lawyer.
Any monies received in excess of costs for this series of lectures will be donated equally to Médecins Sans Frontières, UNICEF and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
Challenging Governments’ Indifference to International Law (Tickets SOLD OUT)
Please write to Australians for Humanity, via this link to ask if a live link can be issued to those without a ticket to the theatrette
As governments around the world face growing scrutiny over their response to atrocity crimes, Australians for Humanity invites you to a public forum at the NSW Parliament.
What does international law actually require of Australia and why is our government falling short?
Join us for an evening of expert analysis, frank discussion, and a call to action.
Keynote Speaker
The Hon. Bob Carr — Former Premier of NSW and former Australian Foreign Minister, one of Australia’s most experienced voices on international affairs.
Responding panellists:
Chris Sidoti
— Former Australian Human Rights Commissioner and member of the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.
Rawan Arraf
— Executive Director and Principal Lawyer, Australian Centre for International Justice.
Ben Saul
— Challis Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney and UN Special Rapporteur on Counterterrorism and Human Rights.
Chair: Margaret Reynolds
— Former ALP Senator and long-standing advocate for human rights and international law.
About Australians for Humanity
Australians for Humanity advocates for Australian government action in accordance with Australia’s binding obligations under international law, including the UN Convention on Genocide, the Geneva Conventions, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
We believe accountability under international law is not optional — and that Australians have both the right and the responsibility to demand it of their elected representatives.
Donations:
Australians for Humanity is a volunteer-run organisation. Donations on the night are warmly welcomed and help sustain our advocacy work.
Support the Civil Liberties Defence Centre
Civil Liberties Defence Centre Limited is a not-for-profit organisation recently established to promote and protect freedom of expression and other democratic rights in Australia.
CLDC is seeking registration as a community legal service to:
- provide legal advice and representation to disadavantaged people facing legal issues due to the exercise of their civil and political rights
- conduct public interest litigation to protect our fundamental freedoms
- provide community legal education about civil and political rights
- advocate for the protection of civil liberties
CLDC needs your support to help us provide accessable, effective and fearless legal help to the community at a time when our fundamental freedoms are under attack like never before.
Make your contribution here. A few $$ each goes a long way. Donate today.
Civil Liberties Defence Centre (CLDC) Inaugural Fundraiser Dinner
Tickets SOLD OUT
An evening of solidarity, inspiration and action. Hosted by comedian Nazeem Hussein and CLDC Chair Nick Hanna, with special guests including Antoinette Lattouf, Mary Kostakidis, Dr Lana Tatour, Amani Haydar and Dr Nick Riemer.
At a time when our fundamental freedoms are being undermined like never before, CLDC will provide accessible, effective and fearless assistance to the community. This inaugural dinner is to raise funds for us to carry out this essential work.
Foreign Influence. How the Israel lobby bought Australian democracy
“No other lobby in Australia holds such power. Andrew Brown explains how the Israel Lobby bought Australian democracy. Part One: The Machinery.
“Australian democracy was not stolen in a single act of corruption. It was purchased incrementally, transaction by transaction, over thirty years, by a foreign-aligned lobbying apparatus so deeply embedded in both major parties that it no longer operates as an external pressure group.
“It functions as an internal governance structure.
“The result is a political class incapable of acknowledging a genocide, incapable of honouring its own treaty obligations, . .
Full Article by Andrew Brown 28 April 2026 Michael West Media
Zionist “Vexatious Legal Action” Against Kostakidis Will Go to Trial, After Failed Mediation
“Another difference about the time in which the complaint was lodged and the present is that back in mid-2024, Israel was still denying that Gaza was a genocide, whereas the United Nations officially ruled that it was , which followed the International Criminal Court a war crime arrest warrant in April last year.
“No one should presume they are entitled to hijack our deliberations and conclusions made in good faith, to the best of our ability, and after taking into account the views of all parties to a conflict and stakeholders,” the former SBS World News presenter further remarked, in relation to the presumptuous manner in which Cassuto sought to get vexatiously litigious in her direction.
Article by Paul Gregoire 6 March 2026 Sydney Criminal Lawyers
An update from Mary Kostakidis
*** Update
Today’s mediation – the second – has again failed to bring vexatious legal action against me to a close. This is not a fight I’ll shy away from as there is far too much at stake.
As an Australian and as a journalist I have a responsibility to stand up for our right to criticise a govt engaged in what the UN, most major human rights organisations around the world including in Israel & most genocide scholars, have deemed is a genocide.
Strong criticism of a country being investigated by the ICJ for plausible genocide, whose leaders are wanted by the ICC, is not only warranted, it is necessary.
I have been cognisant of the complexity of geopolitical issues my entire life and cannot resile from the very thing that propels my enquiry – wanting to understand both what is happening and why, including the historical context.
No one should presume they are entitled to hijack our deliberations and conclusions made in good faith, to the best of our ability, and after taking into account the views of all parties to a conflict and stakeholders.
I will not be told what to think, and whether you agree or not with conclusions I have reached on specific issues, I’m sure you wouldn’t stand for it either.
Our government should stand on the right side of history and impose sanctions on Israel, as we did against South Africa. Israel should not be held to a different standard.
Original copy on X 27 February 2026 Mary Kostakidis
The attempt to punish Grace Tame tells us everything about how we treat women who speak up
“Last week, Grace Tame spoke at a protest in Sydney against the state visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog. She led the crowd in a chant: “From Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada.” The word intifada is Arabic, meaning “uprising” or “shaking off.” To many in the Palestinian solidarity movement, it represents resistance. To many in the Jewish community, particularly eight weeks after the devastating Bondi Beach terrorist attack that killed 15 Australians, it evokes something far more traumatic and threatening. Both of these truths can exist simultaneously. Language is not neutral, and context is everything.
“What followed was entirely predictable. The outrage machine cranked into high gear. Politicians from across the conservative spectrum, including One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce, demanded Tame be stripped of her 2021 Australian of the Year honour. Rebel News, whose Australian face is convicted family violence perpetrator Avi Yemeni, launched a petition to have her stripped of the award and criminally charged. Israel’s deputy foreign minister called her behaviour “absolutely outrageous.” The calls to prosecute her for inciting violence came thick and fast. Social media did what social media does to women who refuse to perform compliance, it turned feral.
“Tame, characteristically, didn’t flinch. “In the pursuit of justice, proportion, fairness, and truth, I refuse to be silent,” she wrote. “I am not the story.”
Full Article by Rita Nasr 18
The peaceful Sydney protest that ended in broken bones.
Camera: Cathy Vogan, Joe Lauria and Frontyard Films
Editing: Cathy Vogan
Music: ‘Free Palestine’ by Maher Zain
.
Grace Tame addresses the issue with facts, countering what many in the Main Stream Media are saying.
She is having ot do this because the MSM seems to be gaslit into believing collective punishment and the starving, maiming and killing of children is somehow acceptable.
Video by Grace Tame 13 Febuary 2026. @TamePunk on TikTok
Grace Tame, free speech and the return of political punishment
“Calls to strip Grace Tame of her Australian of the Year award over her protest speech highlight a troubling slide towards political punishment and selective free speech.
“We are living in an age of McCarthyism, except this time its not communists who are being harassed and shamed but those who dare oppose Israel’s criminal policies, and the leaders such as President Herzog who are the architects and enablers of them
“The anti-Palestinian McCarthyism is being practiced by politicians who are captives of the Zionist lobby. The deeply authoritarian New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, South Australian Attorney-General Kyam Maher, Queensland hard right Premier David Crisafulli and others want to ban words and phrases. Once you start banning words and phrases in a democracy at the behest of a lobby group and media then you are abandoning fundamental freedoms.
“Grace Tame should be congratulated on using her privileged position in the community to support Palestinians.
Compromised peace? Oslo Accords figure deeply linked to Epstein network
The Norwegian diplomat, Terje Rod-Larsen, who was a central figure and key architect of the 1993 Oslo Accords (the Middle East “peace process”), is implicated in newly released United States Justice Department files.
Terje Rod-Larsen is facing a storm of corruption and blackmail allegations.
New documents revealed he was deeply embedded in the inner circle of late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Norwegian media investigations exposes a relationship involving illicit loans, visa fraud for sex-trafficked women, and a beneficiary clause in Epstein’s will, worth millions of dollars.
The famous 1993 White House lawn handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (left) and the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (right), with United States President Bill Clinton in the centre [File: Ron Edmonds/AP Photo]
Article by Mohammad Mansour,
12 Febuary 2026, Al Jazeera
This year’s Adelaide Writers’ Week has been cancelled in defiance of blatant censorship
“Adelaide Writers’ Week (AWW) director Louise Adler resigned, saying she could not be party to silencing writers.”
“Nearly 200 writers pull[ed] out of the event in protest[ing] . . . , the decision to disinvite Australian-Palestinian author Randa Abdel-Fattah.
It is totally heartening to see so many citizens overwhelming stand up for free speech, the discussion of ideas, and to not be bullied or gaslit bu those that can somehow justify the starving, maiming and killing of chldren en-mass
“Actually the point of a writers festival is to discuss ideas that are challenging there are 180 writers that have withdrawn in three days and they have withdrawn . . . because they support Dr. Abdul Fattah’s viewpoint and overwhelmingly I think have recognized that this is a moment of censorship.
This is a moment where freedom of expression matters and that’s what’s at stake here.
This is a turning point, where Australians say, lets have the ability to discuss ideas, as we have up until the recent past , and stop with the censorship, the gaslighting and totalitairian bullying.
“The capacity for political interest groups and politicians of the day and citizens who have chequebooks are able to influence the curatorial independence and judgments of various arts organisation. We have had a catalog of those incidents in the past and I think what’s happened in Adelaide writers week is the canary in the coal mine.
“So from my point of view, there’s a very important lesson in here for the arts community and those people who feel committed to a practice of freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and inclusivity and civil discussion.
Michael Rowland interviews Louise Adler. 13 Jan 2026 7:30 ABC News Australia
“The capacity for political interest groups and politicians of the day and citizens who have chequebooks are able to influence the curatorial independence and judgments of various arts organisation. We have had a catalog of those incidents in the past and I think what’s happened in Adelaide writers week is the canary in the coal mine.
“So from my point of view, there’s a very important lesson in here for the arts community and those people who feel committed to a practice of freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and inclusivity and civil discussion.
Michael Rowland interviews Louise Adler. 13 Jan 2026 7:30 ABC News Australia
Australians for Humanity call for the invitation to the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, to be to withdrawn.
See video below for a copy of the statement and all the signatures.
The published Australians for Humanity signatures:
Margaret Reynolds, John Menadue, Alison Broinowski, Paul Heywood-Smith, Stuart Rees, Paul Chambers, Helen McCue, Richard Broinowski, Richard Hil, Barb Durance, Peter Slezak, Lama Qasem, Greg Barns, Mary Kostakidis & by these Organizations:
An open letter to the Adelaide Festival Board
“On Saturday 10 January 2026, an open letter written by 11 former Adelaide Festival leaders who support the reinstatement of Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah to the Adelaide Writers Week program, was sent to the Festival Board.
“As noted in the accompanying email to the Board, a small number of names are missing from the letter.
‘There are a few (not many) names missing of those living who have had artistic or executive stewardship of the Festival over its history but largely because a 24 hour timeframe to gather support has meant that some have been uncontactable. A couple have not been able to publicly express support due to extraneous factors. None have expressed disagreement with the views in this letter,’ the email read.
Article in ArtsHub 10 January 2026
Adelaide Festival’s Writers Week
List of boycotting participants as of Monday, January 12 at ther end of this article
Article by Daanyal Saeed 12 January 2026
Board chair resigns and program pulled from website amid Adelaide Festival Writers’ Week backlash
“One of South Australia’s iconic events seems to be in disarray, with the Adelaide Festival board chair and three directors quitting (leaving just three directors and a government observer in place) amid escalating backlash over the removal of [Australian-Palestinian author Dr Randa Abdel‑Fattah] from the 2026 Writers’ Week program.
“Of the 124 writers originally scheduled to appear, about 100 have now withdrawn in protest.
Article by Lauren Thomson 12 January 2026
Authors and Sponsors Pull Out of Adelaide Writers’ Week After Randa Abdel-Fattah Dropped From Lineup
“Authoritarianism is rising all around us. It thrives on controlling & squashing & censoring ideas it does not like. I refuse to participate in that.” Jane Caro warns of broader consequences for public debate.
Stella Prize-winning historian Clare Wright, who is also chair of the National Museum of Australia, wrote . . . she was “appalled at the moral cowardice, wrong-headedness and short-sightedness” regarding the move.
“As a Jewish Australian, I am shocked and insulted that the board could exploit the tragedy of Bondi to weaponise its much-loved and respected literary festival,” Wright wrote.
“As a writer, I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Dr Abdel-Fattah and her democratic rights and entitlements to discuss her novel… without the political interference of a board of directors.”
Fellow Stella Prize winner Evelyn Araluen also announced her withdrawal via social media, calling the decision “a devastating betrayal of the democratic politics that have historically defined this festival”.
“I am so disappointed to witness yet another absurd and irrational capitulation to the demands of a genocidal foreign state from the Australian arts sector,” Araluen said.
“Erasing Palestinians from public life in Australia won’t prevent antisemitism [sic]. Removing Palestinians from writers festivals won’t prevent antisemitism [sic].
“I refuse to participate in this spectacle of censorship. As I have said before at the Adelaide Writers Weeks – free Palestine, from the river to the sea.”
Article by Natasha Lee 9 January 2026
Trial Dates set
Dear Supporters,
The terrorist attack targeting Jewish people in our community has rocked the country to its core. The Jewish community and indeed all Australians need to know how the lapse in intelligence and security occurred and what will change to ensure it does not recur. We also need to be able to gieve together for the loss of 15 lives including that of a child.
Instead regrettably the horrendous incident is being polliticised to blame those rallying against the genocide of another people, and authorities for not silencing them. A dangerous time for our democracy.
Thank you for joining me in standing with and for our common humanity.
In developments regarding my legal case following a case management hearing last week:
* the trial will start on 30 November 2026 and the Judge has set aside 3 weeks
* Justice McDonald pointed out the case is about 2 tweets and the other matters are ‘relevant but not central’. Because the other matters are considered relevant, I have spent a year and a half preparing for the trial, with another year ahead.
* leading up to the trial both sides will file evidence and submissions – in each case, the Applicant files first, followed by the Respondent and then the Applicant has the opportunity to respond again.
* The Applicant has sought a mediation conference in February.
You may be interested in this Consortium News article published after I filed my defence.
Case papers can be found on the Federal Court’s Public Interest portal
Thank you to supporters running StandWithMary.org
All the very best to you and your family. May the New Year bring our leaders more inspiration for kindness and courage, one that upholds the fundamental rights of all people to equality, freedom and dignity, without which our own security can never be guaranteed.
Mary Kostakidis
22 December 2025
Anthony Loewenstein unpacks the Bondi terror attack
“Independent journalist Antony Loewenstein joins Jan Fran to discuss how he’s processing the Bondi terror attacks both as a Jewish man and long-time advocate for Palestine.
“Israel has built its own ghetto
”To support the Zionist genocide against Palestinians is the most antisemitic action anyone can do
24 December 2025
Cassuto v Kostakidis
Live Link 10am Thurs 18 December 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpiHNPEtgYI
Click/tap on image for live link
Journalist Files Defense in Anti-Semitism Test Case
“The outcome of the Kostakidis case could have ramifications beyond Australia. It could either help liberate people to criticize a government conducting what human rights groups, scholars and U.N. bodies call genocide, or help justify and shroud Israel’s actions in Gaza by silencing a prominent critic.”
By Joe Lauria 11 December 2025 Consortium News
Mary’s Defence has now been Filed.
Update from her Chuffed page 30 November 2025
Dear Supporters,
My Defence was filed on Friday 28 November by XD lawyers, prepared by Sheryn Omeri KC and Richard Reynolds.
The document should be uploaded on the Federal Court’s Public Interest Portal early this week here at link
In the meantime journalists can apply to the Court for a copy.
The Applicant now has the opportunity to respond, following which our next online case management Hearing will take place on 18 December, when we expect the dates for trial will be determined.
Thank you for coming on this journey with me. Your support has been invaluable.
I am very fortunate to be represented by barristers of the calibre of Sheryn Omeri KC and Richard Reynolds as the matter proceeds to trial. And looking forward to it!
Meanwhile the killing of Palestinians continues amid the preposterous Trump plan for Gaza, the betrayal of the Palestinian people by the international community, and increasing settler violence on the West Bank.
And a UN Report on Torture, released also on 28 November, says Israel has a ‘de facto state policy’ of organised & widespread torture, highlighting concern about impunity for war crimes, amid allegations of repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, waterboarding, use of prolonged stress positions and sexual violence. It says Palestinian detainees were humiliated by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on”, were systematically denied medical care and subject to excessive use of restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation”; the age of criminal responsibility is 12, but younger children are also detained and children categorised as security prisoners have severe restrictions on family contact and may be held in solitary confinement. Read more.
We must all be free to criticise the conduct of the Israeli State. Of any State.
Mary
The Israel Lobby’s War on Aussie Doctors | EP07
Consortium News Commemorates 30 Years 0f Strong Independent Journalism
15 November 1995 – 2025
Start videio at 3:49
“We celebrate Consortium News turning 30 years old, with special guests Ray McGovern, John Kiriakou, Patrick Lawrence and Mary Kostakidis.
Robert Parry founded the first independent, online news publication in the U.S. on Nov. 15, 1995.
We’re celebrating 3 decades of bringing you news others won’t.”
The Media’s Responsibility in Genocide
Mary Kostakidis’ opening address at Australians For Humanity 31 October 2025
Mainstream media cannot escape its guilt in helping to facilitate the genocide in Gaza, says journalist Mary Kostakidis.
Former mainstream media veteran Mary Kostakidis, on the holy grail of journalism: impartiality, objectivity, neutrality and balance, when it comes to Middle East reporting.
Video By Cathy Vogan 9 November 2025. Consortium News
Read More by Joe Lauria 11 November 2025 Consortium News
We Will Not Be Silenced
An esteemed panel of experts come together to discuss why we must fight to protect freedom of expression in the face of increasing attempts to censor and silence critical voices.
Book NOW for various ticket price options, plus ‘pay what you wish’
– 6:30pm Thursday 13 November 2025
– At The Wheeler Centre,
176 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne 3000 VIC, AUS. Accessibility
Sponsored and Hosted by PEN International (Melbourne Centre) The Copyright Agency (Cultural Fund) and The Wheeler Centre
For a galvanising discussion about the fundamental right to report peacefully and without fear of being silenced. Three of the most staunch voices in our society today, reflect on their experiences, concerns and ideas for action around the right to freedom of expression.
Journalist Mary Kostakidis, writer and educator Micaela Sahar and human rights lawyer Sarah Schwartz will be haring what motivates them to keep doing their work, even at great personal cost.
Together with host Daniel James, they highlight the urgent imperative to protect writers and journalists’ right to free speech, dissent and open political discourse.
The three core myths driving Israel’s war on Palestine
“Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, one of the most outspoken moral critics within Israel itself, once summarised what he called the “three core values of Israeli society”: the belief that Jews are the chosen people; that they are the world’s ultimate victims; and that Palestinians are not equal human beings.
“While harsh, his words illuminate how the ideological framework of the Israeli state continues to justify ongoing violence and domination over the Palestinian people.
“The current war on Gaza, marked by mass civilian
deaths and destruction of infrastructure, cannot be understood without recognising these underlying myths. They have shaped Israeli policy for decades, enabling its leadership to act with impunity, to dismiss international law and to frame even the most disproportionate assaults as moral necessity.
For an insightful distillation of the situation, in just a few paragraphs, read full article
Raghid Nahhas 28 October 2025 Pearls and Irritations.
Stand with Mary Kostakidis
Read, then sign and share this Open Letter — in Defence of Free Expression and the Right to Share Information, to support Mary Kostakidis
“This case before the Federal Court of Australia could redefine how Australians lawfully share information. It tests whether distributing “controversial” content may breach section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth), which prohibits racial vilification while balancing freedom of expression.
“Democracy depends on citizens and journalists being able to communicate information without fear of litigation. Using courts in this way risks deterring civic debate, undermining press freedom and discouraging accountability.
Please add your voice, sign and share the open letter today.
Letter is by The Information Rights Project, defending freedom of expression and the right to access information – because open communication is the foundation of a free society.
Chris Hedges:
The Betrayal of Palestinian Journalists
“This is the speech Chris Hedges was supposed to deliver at Australia’s National Press Club, live to the nation on ABC, the country’s national broadcaster. Despite written confirmation the club cancelled the talk, reportedly citing an interest in “balancing out our program”, after learning more about what he was going to say. Hedges claims he was told by a reliable source that the Israeli Ambassador was to replace him. Read what he wrote in response.
“The speech was instead delivered to a full house at the Teachers Federation auditorium in Sydney on October 20. The event was chaired by Sara Saleh, a Palestinian writer & race critical human rights lawyer. It was sponsored by the journalists’ union MEAA, PEN Sydney and the magazine Pearls and Irritations. It was organised by Stop the War on Palestine and Palestine Justice Movement.
Consortium News 21 October 2025
Chris Hedges:
‘Requiem for Gaza’ –
Edward Said Memorial Lecture 2025
Edward Said Memorial Lecture 2025
“Chris Hedges gives the second talk of his 2025 Australian tour, the Edward Said Memorial Lecture, at the University of South Australia in Adelaide, with an introduction by Mary Kostakidis. Welcome to country by Moogy Sumner. Guest speaker, Samar Sammour. Presented by AFOPA, the Australian Friends of Palestine Association.
Consortium News 19 October 2025
Press TV producer scores ‘victory’ in legal battle with ‘Campaign Against Antisemitism’
“I have just won a significant victory against the comically named ‘Campaign Against Antisemitism’ at Westminster Magistrates Court,” Miller, a producer and co-host of Press TV’s weekly Palestine Declassified show, said in a post on social media platform X.
www.presstv.co.uk tap date for full article 17 October 2025
Zionists v Keane, Riemer, Kostakidis. Australia’s massive test cases for free speech
“Criticising Zionism and the state of Israel is *not* antisemitic. That is the guts of the defence in the case brought against two Sydney University academics in the Federal Court, which kicks off on Monday, 13 October.
“This is a significant case for free speech in Australia. Critical even. The lawsuits, brought under Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act against academics Professor John Keane and Nick Riemer, are, in the opinion of this observer, lawfare; an attempt, as is the messy action against journalist Mary Kostakidis, to muzzle criticism of Israel and its atrocities against the Palestinians.
By Micheal West 12 October 2025 Micheal West Media
John Keane and Nick Riemer. Image: Chuffed.org
Free speech and journalism suffer poor legislation.
What’s the scam with 18C?
The scam is that Section 18 of the Racial Discriminating Act is so poorly drafted that it effectively enables the persecution through the courts of people for voicing (or sharing) an opinion about what’s happening in a war zone. Or in any kind of public conflict. Or, for voicing an opinion at all in a public forum.
Michael West Media
ICJ genocide ruling. Image: AP
** Breaking: Interlocutory Judgement in my case today (NB journalists this is affects you)
‘It is not logically impossible that a particular news reporter, even when acting as a news reporter, might engage in particular acts because of people’s race or ethnic or national origin. Whether there is a basis to draw that conclusion in a particular case will depend on an assessment of the evidence in that particular case.’
Justice MacDonald has struck out parts of the Statement of Claim against me whilst providing another opportunity for their amended SOC to be amended again.
The reality is because of a bad law, a lengthy and costly legal case can be brought against you by anyone who claims you are motivated by racism and are responsible for their feelings. And fair comment on a matter of public interest, and Journalism, may be exceptions that can be pleaded, but that has to be proven at trial. Anyone involved in public discourse, including any journalist, must prove they are not motivated by racism.
My view has always been this is a bad law. But – despite the significant cost to me – I welcome the opportunity it will provide for them to run their arguments, up against a brick wall. The attempt to shut down criticism of a genocide is morally reprehensible and dangerous. Those trying to control the narrative will not prevail.
Breaking News
Judgement on Strike Out Application to be read
Live Link for 9:30am Thursday 9 October 2025
“The judgement in [Mary’s] strikeout application will be delivered by Justice Stephen Macdonald this Thursday 9 October at 9.30am AEDT.
“The application is to strike the matter out in part or in full. As it stands, it may run for months.
“Unconscionable we have legislation in place where a vexatious complaint will cost millions of dollars and rip out years of your life – all for criticising a state conducting a genocide.
“RIP common sense in oversight of our laws.
Click on image for livestream link
The National Press Club of Australia, caving to the Israel lobby, Cancels [Chris Hedges’] Talk on Our Betrayal of Palestinian Journalists
His Favorite Merchant – by Mr. Fish
Chris Hedges was scheduled to give a talk at the National Press Club of Australia on October 20 called “The Betrayal of Palestinian Journalists” [1 Sept 2025]. It was to focus on the amplification of Israeli lies in the press, which most reporters know are lies, betraying Palestinian colleagues who are slandered, targeted and killed by Israel. But, perhaps inadvertently proving [his] point, the chief executive of the press club, Maurice Reilly, cancelled the event. The announcement of [his] talk disappeared from the web site. Reilly said “that in the interest of balancing out our program we will withdraw our offer.”
The Israeli Ambassador, retired Lt. Colonel Amir Maimon, who spent 14 years in the Israeli military, is reportedly being considered to speak.
“This is not balance, unless we accept a world where truth is balanced by lies. It is an abandonment of the fundamental mission of journalists — to hold power accountable.
By Chris Hedges 3 October 2025 The Chris Hedges Report
Professor Ben Saul and Chris Sedoti, National Press Club address
Thursday 2 October 2025
Professor Ben Saul, the United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism and Chris Sedoti, human rights lawyer, advocate and investigator. Both are International human rights law experts with the United Nations who explore the implications of the Australian government’s recognition of the state of Palestine.
Australian Media Union Stands Up to Zionist Lobby
“The Australian Media Entertainment Arts Alliance (MEAA) has issued a strong statement defending its members who have been fired and brought to court by the Zionist lobby for daring to criticize Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.
“MEAA’s statement follows the issuing of month’s of statements of support from around the world for Mary Kostakidis, whose reporting on Middle East conflicts has been challenged by the Zionist Federation of Australia under the Racial Discrimination Act. Both parties are expected to appear in the Federal Court early next year.
29 September 2025 Link
A variety of perspectives for the same story
Italian workers’ strike in solidarity with Gaza brings disruptions across the country
Italy’s unprecedented general strike on Monday, demands ties with Israel be cut, and an end to the genocide in Gaza.
“Italy’s grassroots unions, which represent hundreds of thousands of people ranging from schoolteachers to metalworkers, called for a 24-hour general strike in both public and private sectors, including public transportation, trains, schools and ports.
“Israel’s retaliatory offensive over the past 23 months has killed more than 65,100 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, destroyed vast areas of the strip, displaced around 90% of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with experts saying Gaza City is experiencing famine.
By , Associated Press
Updated
Almost all Countries of the world recognise Palestine as a state
Click on link for article and interactive map
“On September 21, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal announced their recognition of Palestine as a state.
“France recognized Palestinian statehood on Monday [22 Sept]. Luxembourg and Malta have announced plans to recognize Palestine as a state this month at the UN General Assembly. Belgium said it would recognize Palestine given certain conditions.
“The recent moves signal a shift in Western policy on Palestinian statehood — and they have angered Israeli officials.
Defend Free Speech On Palestine
MARY KOSTAKIDIS
Journalist and presenter with SBS World News for two decades. Advocate for press freedom and the public’s right to know. Has been the target of ‘hate speech’ law fare by the CEO of the Zionist Federation of Australia for coverage of Israel’s war crimes on X.
AMY REMEIKIS
Political journalist, analyst and author. Amy is the chief political analyst for the Australia Institute and Contributing Editor for The New Daily.
ANTOUN ISSA
Co-founder of Deepcut News. Antoun is a former Guardian journalist who resigned in
2024 due to objections over the outlet’s coverage of the Gaza genocide.
JAMES MCVICAR
Education Officer with the National Union of Students and convenor of the People’s Inquiry into Free Speech on Palestine.
OHAD KOZMINSKY
Executive Member of the Jewish Council of Australia and AEU Branch Councillor.
More Bullying from the Zionist Lobby
Personalise this form letter in support of free speech and to counter foreign interference in our Governments
“The Israel Lobby is pressuring St Vincent hospital to punish Professor Peter Macdonald for speculatively pointing out the Israeli foreign influence in local and foreign Australian policy.
“Send a letter of support to the leadership team at St Vincent’s Hospital & Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, in support of Professor Peter Macdonald – Say ‘NO’ to the bullying of the pro-Israel Lobby! Link
Exposing the DISTURBING ISRAELI Lobby inside Australia | Ex-Foreign Minister Bob Carr
“In this exclusive interview, former Australian Foreign Minister, the Hon. Bob Carr reveals the deep underlying influence of the Israeli lobby in Australian politics – and how it has long shaped Canberra’s stance on Israel–Palestine.
“Once a co-founder of the Labor Friends of Israel with Bob Hawke in 1977, Carr has undergone a dramatic transformation – from being hailed in Tel Aviv as an “honourable gentile” to now becoming one of the loudest critics of Israel’s brutality in Gaza.
One Path Network 22 August 2025
We stand with Mary Kostakidis: Exposing the Genocide in Gaza
by George Vardas 4 August 2025 Greek City Times
Peter Cronau says “Mary Kostakidis was chosen to be made an example of. Her ‘crimes’ are obvious: Articulately criticising Israel’s bloodbath in Gaza; writing about the history of the occupation pre-October 7; criticising the bestial crimes of the IDF; highlighting genocide statements by so many Israeli leaders; exposing the lies of Israeli government spokespeople and their supporters: seeking the facts; speaking the truth to power.”
The Right to Criticize Israel — Stand with Mary
Mary Kostakidis: I will defend my right to report the news.
The former SBS news presenter for two decades, Mary Kostakidis, is accused by Alon Cassuto, CEO of the Zionist Federation of Australia, of breaching Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. The action against her is based on two tweets. She says she stands by them and is ready to answer for any detail regarding them.
However the document filed at court includes an array of historical and contemporary events that the defence claims are utterly irrelevant to determining the lawfulness of the posts.
Her lawyers argue she should not be compelled to either agree or disagree with such a spray of assertions.
This was a “strikeout application” that sought to strike down the action in its entirety or narrow it to coherent grievances about Mary’s two tweets that can be responded to in an efficient manner.
The judge has suggested Mr Cassuto’s legal team try to amend their complaint.
Source: Consortium news
#standwithmary
Jillian Segal and the Israel Lobby’s TERRIFYING Plan for Australia
Upcoming Hearing,
Strikeout Application.
Mary’s Strikeout Hearing will be heard by Justice Stephen McDonald at 10am on 29 July in the Federal Court 3 Angas St Adelaide.
Adelaide supporters of free speech and an end to the genocide please consider coming along to rally outside the court in the morning to show your support. A Link to the Livestream will be posted here.
The strikeout application seeks to strike down the action in its entirety or narrow it to coherent grievances about Mary’s 2 Tweets that can be responded to in an efficient manner.
The hashtag for social media #standwithmary
The REAL Reason Gaza is STARVING – EX-UN Chief Drops BOMBSHELL
“You see starving people turn up in what is effectively a fenced off cattle pen. Dehumanising Palestinians to the point where they’re being regarded as animals. They’re being herded like animals into a human abattoir. For the last 6 weeks about a thousand of them have literally been slaughtered and this is all being done in the name of humanitarianism. So to be absolutely clear, an army that has put a fence around a people, blockaded it for 17 years, has starved people to death, builds these agricultural pens, forces these starving people to come and get food aid from them. When they get there, they’re targeted and shot, and then they’re carried off to hospitals where there are no pharmaceuticals. I’ve always called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the GHF, the genocide humanitarian fig leaf, which is precisely what I think it is. Because if you’re going to get rid of UNRA, you’ve got to reinvent some new thing. And what they did is they went to a bunch literally of cowboys of former Marines and American service people, ex-servicemen, and said, “We want you to do humanitarian work.” Contractors shooting in the direction of Palestinians who had just collected their food and were departing. People who’ve been starved literally to death are crawling to get food. They’re being shot at directly by marksmen, Israeli marksmen. Nearly 700 people have been killed waiting for food. In the last six weeks, over 200 have been killed on the routes going to collect food.”
Why American Jews No Longer Understand One Another
Ezra Klein Opinion Columnist 20 July 2025 The New York Times
“This column read for “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by our executive producer, Claire Gordon, and Marie Cascione. Fact-checking by Jack McCordick and Michelle Harris. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Isaac Jones. The show’s production team also includes Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Elias Isquith, Marina King, Jan Kobal, Kristin Lin and Aman Sahota. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.”
The Ezra Klein Show 23 Jul 2025
“The Tel Aviv stock exchange has increased its value 179%, 70 billion in the last month alone. Why?
“Arms manufacturers and securities/surveillance system has been profiteering a lot through the customisation of weaponry and how Israel has perfected certain techniques of surveillance, hitting, killing Palestinians throughout this genocidal war.
“:Palestine has always been a laboratory for Israel. And Israel must be understood as a military state in order to preserve itself as an ethno state.
“It has had to rely significantly on the use of force, on military force. The Palestinians have provided an endless pool of resources on which to test surveillance techniques, technology, and other kinds of weapons with zero accountability, zero scrutiny, and a lot of return.
The Hon John Ruddick, Libertarian Party, Member Legislative Council, Parliament of NSW, adds his name to an ever growing list of supporters
“What the world most lacks today is courage. It is appalling to conflate criticisms of Israel’s military actions against Palestinians with antisemitism. It is an attempt to shut down criticism and for most it works … but not Mary Kostakidis.
Mary could so easily have avoided the stress of this legal action and remained quiet but she has demonstrated inspiring courage by taking a stand … and so I stand with her.
18C of the Racial-Discrimination Act must be repealed. It is being weaponised to stifle and even prevent important public debate.”
Go to the Endorsements page for more alphabetically listed supporters’ statements, as text only followed by text and images, with easy to use share buttons.
Bob Brown, Former Senator for Tasmania, adds his name to an ever growing list of supporters
“Mary Kostakidis did not advocate two million people being deported from their homeland to make way for a billionaires’ tourist resort. She quoted but did not assassinate Hasan Nazrallah along with hundreds of innocent others. She has not raised a trigger finger to hapless starving human beings lining up for food. What she did do is put a pen to unwarranted human suffering when the ink flow had stalled in more widely-read outlets. She has my admiration and support in opposing the legal attack now aimed at her.”
Go to the Endorsements page for more alphabetically listed supporters’ statements, as text only followed by text and images, with easy to use share buttons.
United Nations Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese and Naomi Klein discuss the backlash Albanese has faced over her report that documents the ‘corporate machinery sustaining Israel’s settler-colonial project and how tech is integral to Israel’s economy.
How Israel Makes MONEY from Killing Palestinians
“Volvo, Airbnb, Booking.com, Palantir. and many others, are all part of what a new groundbreaking report calls the “economy of genocide.” It describes how major corporations have been profiting off of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its occupation in the West Bank.
“Israel has used the Palestinians to experiment technologies from military surveillance to the agribusiness industry,” Albanese says, drawing reference to The Palestine Laboratory by Antony Loewenstein “And these explain why in the past 20 months, why Israel transitioned from an economy of occupation to an economy of genocide.”
“Describing her as “threatening”, the Trump administration called on UN secretary-general to remove Albanese from her position”
“It’s not me, it’s international law that represents a threat,” says Albanese.
“Economy of Genocide”: U.S. Sanctions U.N. Expert Francesca Albanese
Francesca Albanese is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory since 2022.
Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh speak with her the “day after the Trump administration announced it is imposing sanctions on her over her advocacy for Palestinian rights.
“She recently released a report highlighting dozens of companies aiding Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory and fueling its genocidal war machine in Gaza, including U.S. tech giants.
“Secretary of State, Marco Rubio characterized Albanese’s work as “political and economic warfare” against the United States and its allies.
“It’s trying to distract us from where our focus should be: what’s happening to the Palestinians in the little that remains of their tormented land, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.” says Albanese
Part two 11 July 2025 Democracy Now
Manifestly Illegal:
Israeli International Law Scholars on the Stated Plan to “Concentrate” the Palestinian Population in South Gaza
“We, scholars and lecturers at Israeli law faculties specializing in international law and the laws of armed conflict . . . warn against the clear and explicit illegality inherent in the plan to concentrate the population of Gaza in a so-called “humanitarian city” to be established on the ruins of Rafah.
“We emphasize and warn that any order to plan and execute this program would constitute a manifestly illegal order, as it calls for “a clear and unambiguous breach of the law, a certain and essential illegality evident on the face of the order itself, a clearly criminal nature of the order or the acts it commands, an illegality that is obvious and shocking to the conscience—if the eye is not blind and the heart is not indifferent or corrupt” (Judgment of the Israeli Military Court of Appeals, MR 3/57, Military Prosecutor v. Major Malinki et al.).
“If implemented, the plan would constitute a series of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and under certain conditions, could amount to the crime of genocide.
Read more 11 July 2025 Just Security
About the Authors
Eliav Lieblich is a professor of law at Tel-Aviv University’s Faculty of Law and a member of the Just Security Editorial Board (Bluesky – LinkedIn – X)
The special envoy’s plan is the latest push to weaponise antisemitism in Australia, as a relentless campaign pays off
“One must acknowledge the remarkably effective Jewish community organisations in Australia behind the latest antisemitism report. Collectively, with their News Ltd megaphone, they have successfully badgered the government of the day, cowed the ABC, intimidated vice-chancellors and threatened to defund arts organisations.
“It is no surprise that this relentless propaganda effort has paid off.
“. . . demanding the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition. The IHRA is a contentious document, a word salad as a consequence of editing by committee; but that has not stopped Jewish representative bodies advocating for its adoption. The campaign has not been entirely successful, in significant instances actually stiffening the resolve of some to insist that antisemitism, just like all other forms of racism, is to be emphatically rejected. The plan “requires” the adoption of the IHRA definition by all levels of government, institutions and regulatory bodies. The examples proffered plainly conflate Jewishness with the State of Israel. The plan says “The IHRA definition is key to distinguishing legitimate criticism from hate, especially when anti-Zionism masks antisemitism”. There you have it. So antisemitism is anti-zionism and anti-zionism is antisemitism. QED.
“The envoy helpfully proposes to nominate “trusted voices” to refute antisemitic claims – yet again seeking to prescribe who speaks and which views are deemed acceptable. One hopes that media organisations are resolute against the plan’s determination to monitor, oversee and “ensure fair reporting to avoid perpetually incorrect or distorted narratives or representations of Jews”. It seems that the envoy wants to determine what is legitimate reportage. Freedom of the press is of less importance. Independent journalism that is factual and speaks the truth is lightly abandoned.
Australia must combat antisemitism, but not simply defer to demands of some voices
Ben is – Challis chair of international law at the University of Sydney
@profbensaul on X
Kostakidis to Go Before Court, After Judiciary Recognises Anti-Zionism is Not Antisemitism
“Mary Kostakidis should hold her head up high right now, because of all the Australian journalists that are honestly calling out the holocaust that Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinians, the Israel lobby singled her out to attempt to silence via the Federal Court, because obviously she’s been making the most impact amongst this group, and in a time of genocide, to remain silent is complicit.”
By Paul Gregoire 10 July 2025 Sydney Criminal Lawyers
In a single paragraph in a landmark 18C ruling in the Federal Court of Australia on 1 July 2025 – Wertheim v Haddad – Justice Angus Stewart dismissed two of the major bases used by those who wish to silence criticism of Israel’s actions and of Zionism: that Zionism and Judaism are one and the same, and that criticism of Israel is antisemitic.
107 I do not consider that the ordinary, reasonable listener would understand Mr Haddad in these passages, either in isolation or in the context of the sermon as a whole, to be saying anything about Jews generally or about all Jews. He is quite specific in the sermon. He is critical of Israel, the IDF and Zionists. As mentioned, Jews are only mentioned in relation to the Holocaust, and not in a critical or disparaging way. It is only if the ordinary, reasonable listener heard the sermon in the knowledge of what Mr Haddad had said in Speech A that they might conclude that the references to Zionists was a reference to all Jews because of what he says about Zionists in Speech A. But that is not how Speech B is to be understood. The ordinary, reasonable listener would understand that not all Jews are Zionists or support the actions of Israel in Gaza and that disparagement of Zionism constitutes disparagement of a philosophy or ideology and not a race or ethnic group. Needless to say, political criticism of Israel, however inflammatory or adversarial, is not by its nature criticism of Jews in general or based on Jewish racial or ethnic identity: see South African Human Rights Commission on behalf of South African Jewish Board of Deputies v Masuku [2022] ZACC 5; 2022 (4) SA 1 (CC) at [4]-[6] and [161]-[166] per Khampepe J for the Court. Indeed, the applicants did not submit that it is. The conclusion that it is not antisemitic to criticise Israel is the corollary of the conclusion that to blame Jews for the actions of Israel is antisemitic; the one flows from the other.
When calling for an end to the genocide is considered anti-Israeli, it seems telling just what the Israeli regime stands for
Read the full article by Council Estate Media 29 June 2025 @CE_Media_
BANNING Of Palestine Action In UK Should TERRIFY You
“The British government’s decision to ban Palestine action under anti-terror legislation. Putting a nonviolent protest movement in the same legal bracket literally as ISIS, should absolutely terrify you. it represents a crucial landmark in Britain’s descent into naked authoritarianism. 26 June 2025
Mary Kostakidis on Lattouf victory: “I’m not surprised and I’m thrilled”.
“I was not surprised. It’s exactly as I expected, and I’m thrilled. And the wind you were referring to earlier. I thought today was going to blow away some of the oppression, Cathy, because that’s what we’ve been subjected to in this country. And elsewhere in the Western world. We’re supposed to be democracies. We’re supposed to have, you know, journalism where journalists can report and comment without fear or favour, but we don’t. And one of the things I was particularly happy about was that in the judge’s orders today, he has determined that the ABC should conduct an education program.” Mary Kostakidis
Antoinette Lattouf was unlawfully dismissed after sharing a Human Rights Watch post on social media (19 Dec 2023), that said Israel was using starvation as a “weapon of war” in Gaza.
She “was let go 48 hours into a campaign by a pro-Israeli group which sent a barrage of complaints to ABC (AUS) executives, including then-chair Ita Buttrose.”
By Miklos Bolza 24 June 2025 The Nightly
Justice Darryl Rangiah handed down his judgment in a courtroom full of her supporters today 25 June 2025
Sky News Australia
British Jordanian doctor suspended for posts against Gaza genocide
The Israeli military has destroyed every aspect of Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure; executed paramedics and threw them into mass graves; and hunted, threatened, kidnapped, tortured and killed medical workers, skilled physicians and hospital directors.
However, if you are a doctor in the UK and you express outrage about the genocide, you might lose your job with the National Health Service (NHS) and be accused of anti-Semitism.
“As doctors, our morality and our moral standing has always been held against us,” Dr. Nadeem Haddadin-Crowe tells The Electronic Intifada Podcast.
15 May 2025 The Electronic Intifada Podcast
Chris Hedges: Who Controls Our Universities? 13 August 2025
Excerpt from Robinson’s Podcast #249 – Chris Hedges: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the Rise of American Fascism
In this episode, Robinson and Chris discuss Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the rise of American fascism. More particularly, they address comparisons between Trump and Hitler, DOGE, the new crisis for the Democratic Party, Israel and Palestine, the Christian far right, Marxism, and more. Full Episode 28 April 2025
Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel
For Human Rights Council Fifty-ninth session 16 June–11 July 2025
Agenda item 2
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development
By United Nations, Distributed 6 May 2025 to General Assembly
Illegal Police Raid on my Home won’t stop me Covering Gaza
“It seems likely that, for many of the arrests and raids currently taking place against journalists and activists, they have been triggered in the first place by complaints issued to police by pro-Israel groups.
“In this way, the “counter-terror” police have been weaponised against the Palestine solidarity movement, and against journalists who report critically and accurately on Israel.3
““Anti-Semitism” is the allegation often being used against solidarity activists all over the U.K. who are being raided, arrested and in some cases even charged with various “offences” in response to their campaigns against the genocide.
By Asa Winstanley 10 June 2025 Declassified UK
“Miriam Margolyes OBE has joined the Jewish Council’s campaign calling on the Australian Government to sanction Israel.”
“Every day more and more Jewish people are speaking out against Israel’s abominations in Gaza. We are seeing pictures of starving children, parents holding the remains of their deceased babies, and news of Israel shooting and killing Palestinians desperately seeking aid — and we are saying loudly that these genocidal actions are not in our names.
The world is watching, and Anthony Albanese has a stark choice. Either take concrete action to show that we oppose Israel’s starvation and slaughter of Palestinians who have nowhere else to go, or be remembered in history as a nation which was complicit in a genocide.
To learn more about what the Jewish Council does, and to get involved in our campaigns, go to www.jewishcouncil.com.au ”
10 June 2025 Jewish Council of Australia
UK Parliament accepted Jeremy Corbyn’s “Gaza independent public inquiry bill”
“Drawing on Declassified’s research, the former Labour party leader today demanded an independent inquiry into Britain’s complicity with Israel’s genocide in Gaza and tabled a bill to get this debated in parliament next month“
Full video of Jeremy Corbyn’s first reading of “Gaza independent public inquiry bill” into UK participation in Gaza Genocide being accepted into UK Parliament thanks to the support of independent, Labour, Green, SNP & other MPs.
Jeremy Corbyn provides background on “Gaza independent public inquiry bill” into UK Participation in Gaza Genocide.
Before it passed its first reading in UK parliament today with the support of independent, Labour, Green, SNP & other MPs
Matt Kennard 4 June 2025 Palestine Deep Dive
Never Again ?
“. . . the State of Israel has made a mockery of the slogan, “Never Again.”
“In broad outline, Gaza is similar to the camps of the Shoah where Jews were mercilessly confined and murdered. In the case of Gaza, however, Palestinians have replaced Jews as victims of slaughter, starvation and eradication, and the State of Israel, in turn, has evolved into the keeper of the Camp.”
Another “difference of note is that during the Shoah Jews were killed in the camps primarily with poison gas, while the Palestinians of the Gaza camp are being liquidated by unceasing bombing and shelling along with the deliberate starvation of the population and the destruction and withholding of all necessities for bare life.”
By Gary Fields 3 May 2025 CounterPunch
The ‘chaos’ of aid distribution in Gaza is not a system failure. The system is designed to fail.
“What is unfolding today in Gaza, where food aid falls from the sky like ordinance and “humanitarian corridors” double as kill zones, is not the collapse of humanitarianism, but its logical consummation under conditions of settler-colonial necropolitics”.
This is the best article we have found on the current phase of “aid distribution”.
By Abdaljawad Omar 30 May 2025 Mondoweiss
Aaron Maté unpacks the weaponisation of language and highlights the use of the far right to promote its own agenda under the guize of protecting the Jewish community.
“On The Tea with Myriam Francois, journalist and critic of U.S. foreign policy Aaron Maté joins us for a deep dive into Palestine, ‘Jewishness,’ and the media narratives around them. As a Jewish voice opposing Israel’s violence, he’s been dismissed and sidelined — but he’s not backing down.
From the devastation in Gaza to the discourse in Washington, Maté thoughtfully explores how identity can be instrumentalized, how definitions of antisemitism are being reshaped in politics, and why solidarity with Palestinians is not only compatible with Jewish identity — but essential to its integrity.
– Zionism vs. Judaism – What happens when a political project lays claim to a religious identity?
– Hasbara 2.0 – Israel’s PR machine and the manufacturing of moral consent.
– Gaza and Genocide – Is the world finally waking up to reality?
– Jewish Identity Under Siege – What happens when dissenting Jews are cast out? This episode is a deep dive into the identity politics of empire — and the people refusing to be used by it.
Language Warning: Rated PG
How is War Still Legal in 2024 ?
“ . . . they’re using kids as human shields . . . well you got to work around that . Jesus Christ if I’m mad at my neighbour and I want to beat the [bleep] out of him, but he’s holding a baby right. I wouldn’t come in and try to punch him through the baby”
By Bill Burr, excerpts from earlier perfomaces, 15 April 2025
Former Middle East negotiator Aaron David Miller
says the Israeli government is putting its political interests above the needs of Palestinians, Israeli hostages and their families.
27 May 2025 ABC News (AUS)
Why do so many academics, historians, and experts (including those who are Jewish and Israeli), call what Israel is doing in Gaza a genocide ?
Is it because genocide experts are almost all in agreement that it meets the formal definition of genocide ?
Mehdi Hasan 24 May 2025 Zeteo
At Stand With Mary, we say:
What we can all see happening, appears to be cause of a debilitating stain on the collective soul of humanity.
Image: Australian Political commentator, Cath Wilcox 22 May 2025 Sydney Morning Herald
Yes, it’s a genocide, 4:14min Video
“Amos Goldberg is a professor in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a fellow of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, also sitting on the institute’s editorial board. Goldberg has published widely on The Holocaust, and was the editor of the journal Dapim: Studies on the Holocaust (2004–2014).
Image: Still from the video ‘Yes, it’s a genocide’
By Israeli Professor Amos Goldberg 20 May 2025 Pearls and Irritations
Even once reluctant scholars now agree on Israel’s Gaza assault: It’s a genocide
“Only a tiny number of progressive Democratic lawmakers in the US have used the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza, . . . bombing of hospitals, schools, refugee camps and other civilian infrastructure.
Image: Child holding a baby in the desolate rubble of Gaza
By Julia Conley 19 May 2025 Pearls and Irritations (reprinted from Common Dreams)
“Courage, said WikiLeaks, is contagious. We are all inspired by Mary’s brave, resilient, and principled stand against intimidation and support her in every way.”
Confirming It’s Legal to Speak About the Right Occupied Peoples Have to Armed Resistance
“The 17 April 2024 filing of the legal action with the Federal Court of Australia seeks declaration from the Australian attorney general and the Commonwealth that comments made on 3CR Radio regarding Hamas having the right to armed resistance under international law, based on its being a resistance group representing an occupied people, is guaranteed speech in Australian law.
Image: Krautungalung elder Uncle Robbie Thorpe and Sydney-based lawyer Daniel Taylor
By Paul Gregoire 10 May 2025 Sydney Criminal Lawyers
15 May 2025 marked 77 years since Al-Nakba of 1948
Explainer: the 1948 turning point in Palestine-Israel history
By Catriona Stirrae 14 May 2025 SBS News
Image: Jews for Justice for Palestinians UK 9 June 2023
“Key to understanding this conflict is the way the Middle East was divided in the early 20th century, following the end of World War One.
“Obviously you have to go back quite a few decades, late 19th century Jews fleeing persecution. In some cases looking for a place where they can protect themselves. Some of them end up in back then Palestine, under Ottoman Rule. I’m saying some of them because many fled to other parts of the world. And this is further inspired by the birth of the, what we call the Zionist movement, the idea that after 2000 years in exile, Jews should go back to Israel or Zion and establish a home for the Jewish people.
“Tensions mounted in the 1920s and 1930s as many Jews fled persecution in Europe, strengthening the Zionist movement for a Jewish homeland.
Medhurst Case: Test of a Turning Tide on Gaza
By Joe Lauria 12 May 2025 Consortium News
“British police have given the Crown Prosecution Service the file on journalist Richard Medhurst in a test of how far Western governments will go to continue defending Israel’s monstrous atrocities in Gaza.”
Mon, 12 May 2025 from Mary’s Chuffed Page
Hello Everyone,
Last Thursday’s Case Management Hearing was cancelled because the two sides agreed on a timetable for the case the day before.
The next hearing, scheduled for 29 July, is a Strike Out Hearing where my lawyers will argue the Statement of Claim is unanswerable – it is rambling, vague and unreasonable. we will file documents to the Court this week that outline and support our strike out case.
Stephen Keim SC is leading the team, with Greg Barns SC, assisted by Kate Slack and Felicity Nagorcka. Honoured to have people of this calibre representing me, with solicitor Mark Davis. I particularly would like to thank Greg who put his hand up for this straight away. That meant an awful lot.
Thank you very much for your support – your solidarity in the face of relentless efforts to silence criticism of a genocide (which has been called out by Israeli historians too), has also meant a lot.
I am not requesting a further contribution – I’m confident the target will be met with a growth in the number of supporters. In that regard I would be grateful if you would forward my email to your networks, so they can also share it.
Thank you for standing up for free speech with me.
LET THE CHILDREN OF GAZA EAT
Mary
“Mary Kostakidis is a voice of integrity and authority in Australian news media. The case against her is purely “”lawfare”” – the Zionist Federation of Australia taking advantage of a fallacious definition of antisemitism to suppress accurate commentary on Israel’s genocide in Gaza. As a Jewish Australian, I unreservedly stand with Kostakidis. Criticism of Israel in terms that do not vilify Jews is not antisemitic.”
“In the 1930s, one duty stood above the rest: to defend Jews from the oncoming Holocaust. Today, once more, one duty stands above the rest: to end the Palestinian genocide. Mary is vilified for having done her duty. It is now ours to #StandWithMary.”
“Mary Kostakidis, a famous Australian journalist and former prime-time weeknight SBS World News Australia presenter, has been taken to the federal court over her—one should say quite tame—reporting on the situation in the Gaza Strip. The very fact that the court has not dismissed this allegation upon its arrival shows you how deeply rooted moral panic is in the Global North.”
Bob Carr, former Foreign Minister of Australia:
“I’m alarmed once more by the bullying of the Israel lobby. It is intent on closing down opposition to the genocide in Gaza. If they succeed in characterising Mary’s reporting as offensive, who will be next? I guess anyone who uses the G word. Or calls out apartheid laws or racist settlers.
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Disregard for Democracy
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Miriam does a thing
Miriam is wonderful
Norman Finkelstein and Chris Hedges
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Starting Thursday 8 May 2025 with the first set for this round. As court documents become live and legally publishable, we will post to this page of the website. We intend to have a 'click here' button or link for a form of email registration so you can receive...