A casual ABC radio host and Palestine advocate taken off air after three days on the job will soon learn if she is owed damages for unlawful termination.
Antoinette Lattouf was hired for a week-long stint on ABC Radio Sydney’s Mornings program before Christmas 2023.
She was let go after sharing a Human Rights Watch post that said Israel was using starvation as a “weapon of war” in Gaza.
She has taken her unlawful termination case to the Federal Court which is due to hand down its judgment on Wednesday.
The 41-year-old is seeking compensation and penalties.
She claims she was fired from the job because of her race and political opinion after publicly commenting on the plight of Palestinians during the ongoing conflict with Israel.
During a hearing in February, Justice Daryl Rangiah heard Lattouf was let go 48 hours into a campaign by a pro-Israeli group which sent a barrage of complaints to ABC executives including then-chair Ita Buttrose.
The public broadcaster has been accused of taking a partisan view despite claiming to be an impartial news source.
However, the ABC denies this.
The broadcaster claims it took 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.
She rejects this, saying her direct supervisor Elizabeth Green agreed she could post facts from reputable sources.
As well as Ms Buttrose, she has also targeted the ABC’s former content chief Chris Oliver-Taylor and former managing director David Anderson as being responsible for the allegedly unlawful termination.
She has blamed the broadcaster for making her sacking public after an article in The Australian was put out before she had returned home the day she was fired.
ABC executives blamed head of capital city networks Steve Ahern for putting the organisation in an “unacceptable position” by failing to assess Lattouf’s history before hiring her, the court previously was told.
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