Egretta

STATEMENT RE MARY KOSTAKIDIS AND THE ZIONIST FEDERATION After 2 years of utterly pointless legal proceedings against Mary Kostakidis, Alon Cassuto of the Zionist Federation pulled up stumps and ended the case on Friday. There were no deeds, undertakings or apologies. There was an agreement that he would not be pursued for costs and he simply walked away. In the interests of social cohesion we gave him a dignified exit and basically said nothing. Instead of taking a deep breath before trying to explain to his backers how profoundly he had failed, he put out a press release. One of the most deceptive we have ever seen. The short correct version is Alon lost. Badly. He achieved nothing of any legal consequence. Australians are still relatively free to speak their minds without being overly concerned about what Mr Cassuto thinks. Mary stoicly never ceded an inch to him and she will continue to say as she wishes on all public events. Alon’s solemn legal proceeding didn’t begin 2 years ago with a court filing, it began with a bells and whistles press conference and a single compliant journalist at the ready. Mr Cassuto, then freshly appointed as the CEO of the Zionist Federation of Australia, announced he had taken offence to two tweets Mary had made in the midst of the bombardment of Gaza. So offended that Mary would have to answer for it in the Federal court under the Racial Discrimination Act. It now seems that the Act was just a handy prop for Mr Cassuto’s objectives. A man with no reputation was going to launch himself bringing down a woman who had one. So he thought. Mr Cassuto’s legal proceeding to ventilate his hurt over tweets began with nothing more than slurs about Mary and ended in the same vacuous way. For two years he wasted the resources of the Federal Court and the Human Rights Commission, the time and expense of half a dozen lawyers putting on claims and defences circulating around Alon’s hurt and offence. And then on the verge of the trial he withdraws with a self serving flourish: “My objectives in bringing this proceeding have been substantially satisfied.” Really. Did he ever have a proper purpose in bringing this court proceeding? Or was it just a monumental waste of time resources and money until Alon breezily decides that his objectives have been met. If his objective was to pointlessly fan political and religious tension he may have a point. Or perhaps it was to encourage a schoolyard pile-on to Mary Kostakidis. Well done. Or was it to bring disrepute to the Zionist Federation by portraying them fundamentally as thin skinned and enemies of free speech. In his account of his legal objectives Mr Cassuto infers that one of his accomplishments was that ‘Ms Kostakidis has publicly apologised’ That was 18 months ago. And nothing to do with you Mr Cassuto. Various meanings were being taken from her posts. Mary didn’t agree with those interpretations but under her own steam apologised if any hurt was taken. That is because she is a nice person, a class act and not a windbag. Every dollar spent, all the wreckage and all the vitriol since then, was for the vanity of Mr. Cassuto. He wanted a few more words added that were to his liking and he wanted a Federal Court proceeding to force Mary to say them. She wouldn’t be bullied to say your words Mr Cassuto and she will not be in the future.