Labor senator Fatima Payman calls for Palestinian state, as party split deepens

Labor senator Fatima Payman has urged her Albanese government colleagues to recognise a Palestinian state, rejecting criticism that the Greens are seeking to score ‘cheap points’.

Labor senator Fatima Payman. Picture: AAP

Labor senator Fatima Payman has urged her colleagues to immediately recognise a Palestinian state, rejecting criticism that the Greens are seeking to score “cheap points” by backing the bid for statehood.

In an opinion piece published by Al Jazeera, Senator Payman says Palestinian statehood is a “moral and ethical imperative” that will bring peace to the Middle East, and accuses Israel of carrying out a “genocide” in Gaza under the “guise of self-defence”.

The West Australian first-term senator broke ranks with her own government on Israel last month with a defiant address which she closed by repeating the controversial “from the river to the sea” chant.

In her latest remarks on the Hamas-Israel war, Senator Payman distanced herself from ­Anthony Albanese’s claim that the Greens were playing politics by moving a motion in parliament to recognise Palestinian statehood. The motion failed in the House of Representatives after 80 MPs voted against it.

“My party, the Australian Labor Party, has consistently ­argued that such motions are political machinations on the part of the Greens in order to score ‘cheap points’ and sway the public,” she said. “Even if that were the case, this ‘politicking’ does not detract from the underlying fact that a genocide is ongoing, and the Australian public knows it.

“Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been slaughtered, among them 15,000 children.”

Senator Payman accused the Prime Minister and the ALP of backing away from support for Palestine since being elected, calling on her colleagues to stand on the “right side of history”.

“In opposition, our Prime Minister and the Labor Party were fierce champions of Palestine and passionate voices for justice,” she said. “I ask that we summon that spirit of old and do the same in power.

“Let historians write of us that we were on the right side of history, that we boldly reinforced international law, and that we were a shining beacon and voice for freedom.”

She also praised activists who unleashed a wave of protests on university campuses across the country, which she compared to anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. “Australian hearts have an affinity for justice,” she said. “This is the reason why our students across the country are standing up as their predecessors did when they denounced the wars in Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The students were right on each of these generation-defining conflicts. Will it be that history ­repeats itself again by which we ignore them again?.”

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has stated her support for a two-state solution as the “only path to peace and security”, stressing that a Palestinian state cannot threaten Israel’s security, or include a role for Hamas.

Senator Payman gives her first speech in the Senate. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Greens leader Adam Bandt accused Labor of refusing to take ­action to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “extremist government” to end the invasion of Gaza, adding that there was “nothing stopping Labor recognising Palestine today”. “Recognising Palestine by itself won’t stop the bombing of Gaza, but it would help put pressure on the Israeli government to end the invasion and end the ­occupation,” he said.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin urged Senator Payman to use her platform to call on Hamas to “accept the ceasefire that Israel and all meditating parties have supported”.

“Senator Payman has taken positions on the conflict utterly antithetical to her government’s own policies, including the use of a chant that our own Prime ­Minister called ‘violent’ and contrary to a two-state solution,” he said.

Last month, the Senate voted to condemn the use of the phrase “from the river to the sea” following Senator Payman’s comments, with the Prime Minister saying it was “not appropriate” for Senator Payman to use the phrase.