WA senator says ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ – a phrase Anthony Albanese argues is counter to two-state solution
The Labor senator Fatima Payman has accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and has questioned how many deaths will be enough for the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to declare “enough”.
In a significant rupture with the Labor party position, Payman called for sanctions and divestment from Israel and declared “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – a politically charged phrase that Albanese has criticised.
But Payman characterised the call as signifying “freedom from the occupation, freedom from the violence and freedom from the inequality”.
The Western Australian senator originally intended to read her statement to a rally outside Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday marking the Nakba – an Arabic phrase meaning “the catastrophe” that refers to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians around the time of the establishment of Israel in 1948.
Instead she read the statement to two media outlets, acknowledging that “there is disillusionment in the community with the [political] parties”. Payman said she was “terrified at my own inadequacy to stand for what I believe”.
“Today, more than ever, is the time to speak the truth – the whole truth – with courage and clarity,” she told SBS News and Capital Brief.
“My conscience has been uneasy for far too long. And I must call this out for what it is. This is a genocide and we need to stop pretending otherwise.”
Read the article by Daniel Hurst in The Guardian.