Antoinette Lattouf has won her case for unlawful termination against the ABC, with the public broadcaster ordered to pay her $70,000 in compensation.
The casual radio host and Palestine advocate was hired for a week-long stint on ABC Radio Sydney‘s Mornings program in December 2023.
Ms Lattouf, 41, was let go after just three shifts for sharing a Human Rights Watch post that said Israel was using starvation as a ‘weapon of war’ in Gaza.
The ABC claimed it took Ms Lattouf off the air because she failed to follow a direction not to post about Israel or the war in Gaza during her five-day shift.
But Justice Darryl Rangiah, who delivered his judgment in Sydney’s Federal Court on Wednesday morning, disagreed, finding pro-Israel lobbyists formed an ‘orchestrated campaign’ to pressure then-ABC chair Ita Buttrose to take Ms Lattouf off air.
He found the ABC contravened the Fair Work Act by terminating Ms Lattouf’s employment ‘for reasons including that she held a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza’.
Justice Rangiah ordered the ABC to pay Ms Lattouf compensation of $70,000, with the public broadcaster also potentially on the hook for ‘pecuniary penalties’ for breaking the law.
‘I have found that the ABC contravened s 772(1) of the FWA by terminating Ms Lattouf’s employment for reasons including that she held political opinions opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza,’ Justice Rangiah ruled.
Antoinette Lattouf has won her case for unlawful termination against the ABC, with the public broadcaster ordered to pay her $70,000 in compensation
Ms Lattouf arrived at court wearing a $1,119 coat by Sydney designer Rebecca Vallance and was flanked by her legal team and her high-flying retail strategist husband, Danny (he is pictured, second from left)
Ms Lattouf, who arrived at court wearing a $1,119 coat by Sydney designer Rebecca Vallance and flanked by her legal team and her high-flying retail strategist husband, Danny, welcomed the judgment in sombre tones.
‘In December 2023 I shared a Human Rights Watch post because (they) found that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza,’ she told reporters outside court.
‘It is now June 2025 and Palestinian children are still being starved. We see their images every day. Emaciated, skeletal, scavenging through the rubble for scraps. This unspeakable suffering is not accidental, it is engineered.
‘Deliberately starving and killing children is a war crime. Today the court has found that punishing someone for sharing facts about these war crimes is also illegal. I was punished for my political opinion.’
She declined to take any further questions as her short statement was cheered by supporters, some of whom chanted ‘ABC is Israel’s b****’.
One of her supporters interrupted a Sky News live cross, bellowing over the top of reporter Caroline Marcus and forcing the channel to cut the feed.
Host Laura Jayes said: ‘That’s just rude.’
The ABC claimed that they had given Ms Lattouf a ‘direction’ not to ‘post anything on social media that would suggest she was not impartial in relation to the Israel/Gaza war’.
Ms Lattouf welcomed the judgement in sombre tones
‘Deliberately starving and killing children is a war crime. Today the court has found that punishing someone for sharing facts about these war crimes is also illegal. I was punished for my political opinion,’ she told reporters (pictured: Ms Lattouf hugs a supporter)
But Justice Rangiah found that an email campaign from pro-Israel supporters alleged Ms Lattouf ‘expressed anti-Semitic views, lacked impartiality and was unsuitable to present any program for the ABC’.
‘The complaints caused great consternation amongst the senior management of the ABC,’ he said.
Justice Rangiah found that instead of being given a ‘direction’ from senior ABC management, Ms Lattouf was ‘merely provided with advice that it would be best not to post anything controversial about the war’.
‘That advice was also qualified by an indication that posting fact-based material from a verified source would be fine.’
However, Justice Rangiah rejected Ms Lattouf’s ‘allegations that the reasons for her termination included her race or national extraction’.
Ms Lattouf reportedly burst into tears and hugged her lawyers after the judgment was delivered, before mouthing to her husband in the row behind: ‘We won’.
The decision is a highly damaging one for the ABC, in particular its former chair Ita Buttrose whose evidence was criticised for being ‘difficult to understand’.
‘Ms Buttrose’s evidence under cross-examination was somewhat theatrical and difficult to follow at times,’ Justice Rangiah found.
‘She had a strong belief that Ms Lattouf was an activist who should have never been engaged by the ABC and she wanted Ms Lattouf gone as soon as possible.’
The judgment was also damning for the ABC’s former chief content officer, Chris Oliver-Taylor, who Justice Rangiah found was the sole decision maker in the decision to sack Ms Lattouf.
‘Mr Oliver-Taylor knew Ms Lattouf had not been given any direction not to post anything about the Israel/Gaza war,’ Justice Rangiah found.
‘This was not a case where her employment could be terminated for failing to comply with a lawful and reasonable direction.
‘Further, Mr Oliver-Taylor had no more than a suspicion that Ms Lattouf may have breached some editorial ABC policy or guideline.’
Daily Mail Australia has approached the ABC for comment.