Pro-Israel lobby ousted ABC journalist, prompting staff to call for industrial action
A pro-Israel lobby group has pushed for the ouster of an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) journalist, prompting the news agency's staff to call for a strike.
Award-winning Lebanese-Australian journalist Anotinette Lattouf was fired from ABC last month for sharing on Instagram a report about the Israeli regime forces' genocidal attack on the Palestinians trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“The ABC sacked broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf after a high-level and coordinated letter-writing campaign from pro-Israel lobbyists that directly targeted the corporation’s chair, Ita Buttrose, and managing director David Anderson,” daily Sydney Morning Herald found in an investigative report which includes “dozens of leaked messages from a WhatsApp group called Lawyers for Israel.”
The report reveals that the pro-Israeli lobby group members “repeatedly wrote to the ABC demanding Lattouf be sacked, and threatened legal action if she was not.”
Meanwhile, Lattouf filed a complaint against ABC, calling the move “not a win for journalism or critical, fair thinking.”
Last week, Lattouf's lawyer, Josh Bornstein, said on X, formerly Twitter, that his client's sacking was "based on both political opinion and race".
The pro-Israel lobby even targeted Bornstein, calling him a "traiter" [sic] for defending his client.
Meanwhile, around 80 staffers at the news agency threatened on Tuesday to stage a strike over Lattouf's sacking, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance union has confirmed.
Lattouf joined a growing list of journalists across the globe who have been dismissed for demonstrating pro-Palestinian sentiments amid the growing support worldwide for an end to the Israeli regime forces' months-long genocide of Palestinians trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip.
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