Labor senator defies party to support Palestinian state
Senator Fatima Payman has defied her party and voted for Palestine to be recognised as a state, sounding the death knell for her time in Labor.
Labor Senator Fatima Payman walks behind Independent Senator David Pocock and Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe as she crosses the floor in the Senate on June 25, 2024. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)
Labor MPs cannot cross the floor and vote against policy positions under internal rules.
The West Australian joined the Greens and independent senators David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe to support the motion in the Senate on Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong sought to water down the motion and the opposition sought to add caveats, but both failed.
Senator Payman previously broke ranks with her party, saying it was “imperative” to recognise statehood as she accused Israel of genocide in Gaza as the death toll mounts.
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi branded the government’s rhetoric against Israel as tepid, saying “all of which Israel has ignored and will continue to ignore”.
“Doctors who are returning from Gaza are calling it hell on earth,” she said.
“The need for justice for Palestine and the recognition of statehood has never been more urgent.”
The simply worded motion was in line with Labor’s policy platform, she said.
Labor has affirmed it will recognise a Palestinian state but with no timeline attached.
Senator Wong said it would form part of a peace process for a two-state solution and could no longer be pushed back until a negotiated peace settlement was agreed.
Australia has called for Israel to follow international humanitarian law and said it was “gravely concerned” about a United Nations inquiry that found both Israel and Hamas were responsible for war crimes.
Two parallel reports found Hamas had wilfully killed Israelis, taken hostages and engaged in inhuman and cruel treatment against international law.
The “immense” scale of killing in Gaza, use of starvation and failure to supply essentials such as food, water, shelter and medicine were found to be war crimes conducted by Israel.
Tel Aviv has rejected the findings and accused the inquiry of having an anti-Israeli bias.
Designated terrorist organisation Hamas killed 1200 Israelis and took some 250 hostage during an attack on October 7, according to Tel Aviv.
Israel’s counter-offensive in Gaza has since killed more than 37,000 people, the Hamas-run local health ministry says.
AAP
I can’t see Senator Payman staying with Labor, over the long term. Might she right now, be surveying Greener fields?
Wish AAP would stop using ‘Tel Aviv’ instead of Jerusalem in their statements … they’ve taken upon themselves the power of assigning capital cities to countries now … although it’s in the singular, only Israel.
Good riddance Fatima Payman if you’re booted out of the Labor Party, as you should be. And who are you in parliament representing, your constituency or the Palestinians?