Labor senator Fatima Payman has broken ranks to accuse Israel of conducting a “genocide” in Gaza and called on the prime minister and her government to sanction the Israeli government while urging her colleagues to “stand for what is right”.
In a veiled criticism of her party leader, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Senator Payman criticised Australian leaders for “performative gestures”.
“Instead of advocating for justice, I see our leaders performatively gesture defending the oppressor’s right to oppress, while gaslighting the global community about the rights of self defence,” she said in Canberra on Wednesday.
It’s understood she is the first federal Labor parliamentarian to break ranks by publicly describing what is happening in Gaza as a genocide.
“My conscience has been uneasy for far too long and I must call this out for what it is,” she said.
“This is a genocide and we need to stop pretending otherwise. The lack of clarity, the moral confusion, the indecisiveness is eating at the heart of this nation.”
In January, South Africa brought a case to the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, a charge Israel strongly rejected. The case is ongoing.
Payman had originally intended to deliver the speech at a rally outside federal parliament on Wednesday where dozens had gathered to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the “Nakba”, Arabic for “catastrophe”.
Watch the news report from SBS TV news.
[Editor: Senator Payman’s complete ignorance about the complexities of the Israel-Palestine dispute, her appalling subservience to her Muslim constituency, her wedge politics, her hypocrisy with her own version of a ‘performative gesture’ aside, the complicity of the Jewish Council of Australia in this issue and the fact that SBC gives this pretentious organisation a voice is absolutely outrageous. SBS has completely ignored a request for an exceptional documentary about the Nova music festival massacre to be aired and insteas gives prominence to a very small organisation that is considered a pariah in the Jewish community.]