Australian PM says Senator who voted to recognise Palestine ‘undermined’ party position
Australia’s Prime Minister Antony Albanese has said that Senator Fatima Payman‘s vote in favour of recognising a Palestinian state was “designed to undermine” the collective position of the Labor Party, in an interview with ABC radio this morning.
Australian site 6 News reported yesterday that Payman had been indefinitely suspended from meetings with the rest of Labor’s parliamentary members after she joined the Australian Greens to vote in support of Palestinian recognition last week.
However, journalist Hugh Riminton noted in a post on X that Labor’s National Platform (PDF) “calls on the Australian Government to recognise Palestine as a state”, as determined by members at the party’s National Conference in August 2023.
Labor Senator Fatima Payman has reportedly been asked to no longer attend meetings with other Labor parliamentary members after voting in favour of Palestinian recognition
‘It’s in the Likud charter’ – Australian PM on ‘from the river to the sea’
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told the Australian Parliament “it’s just a fact” that the phrase “from the river to the sea” is used by supporters of Israel, as well as supporters of Palestine.
“It’s in the Likud charter,” Albanese said, after some members of parliament appeared to question his statement it was also used by supporters of a single Israeli state.
Albanese added that he “unequivocally” condemned the use of the phrase “because it speaks about a single state”.
Although Labor’s National Platform (PDF) said it expects recognising Palestine to be an “important priority for the Australian Government” under Albanese’s leadership, his government has said Palestinian statehood should be achieved “as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution”.
Earlier today Albanese said that Senator Fatima Payman had undermined his party’s position by voting in favour of recognising a Palestinian state.
Free Palestine protest in Melbourne, Australia
Thousands of people joined the weekly Free Palestine protest at the State Library of Victoria, in Melbourne, Australia on Sunday
Weekly protests against the war in Gaza in Australian cities and towns as well as outside suburban factories where weapons are manufactured.
