ISTANBUL
Australian lawmaker and former member of the ruling Labor Party Fatima Payman on Monday exclaimed with happiness after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the country's decision to recognize an independent state of Palestine.
“It feels so amazing to have joined every single person out there, every Australian out there who put pressure on the government and wanted them to do what’s right by the Palestinian people to be on the right side of history and today is the day,” said an excited Senator Payman in a video statement.
Albanese on Monday announced that Canberra had decided to recognize Palestine at the upcoming UN General Assembly session in September.
“Thank you so much to all the Labor Party members, unionists who have proudly pushed and pressured the Labor government to do better,” said the lawmaker whose family comes from Afghanistan.
“I’m absolutely thrilled,” said Payman, who joined the Labor Party in 2014 and was ousted by Albanese after she crossed parliament floor last year to support a motion on recognizing the Palestinian state.
After Albanese’s announcements, Payman said: “Now we need sanctions on Israel, an end to the arms trade, and an end the violence, oppression and occupation for a free Palestine!”
The Opposition Greens Party had moved two motions last year, both of which were voted down by the ruling, as well as opposition lawmakers.
However, the prime minister had suspended Payman for supporting the opposition motion on Palestine and later the lawmaker quit the ruling Labor Party, calling on the Albanese government to match its words with actions.
Albanese was re-elected for a second term this year in the May general elections.
"Our actions must align with our principles," Payman had said.
"When history looks back, it must see that we stood on the side of humanity, even when it was difficult," she had said in a statement when she left the party to sit in the parliament as an independent senator.
Amid growing calls to sanction Israel for its genocidal war on Gaza, Albanese's announcement came hours after Tel Aviv killed six journalists in the Palestinian enclave.
The Gaza Media Office announced in a statement that the number of journalists killed since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, has risen to 237.
Israel is facing mounting condemnation for its genocidal war on Gaza, where it has killed nearly 61,500 people since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave and brought it to the verge of famine.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.