aAn Australian senator has accused colleagues of intimidation after he was expelled from the ruling Labor caucus after voting in favour of a motion to recognise the state of Palestine.
Afghanistan-born Fatima Peyman, an outspoken opponent of the Gaza war and champion of the Palestinian cause, ignored her party’s decision to oppose the Greens’ motion last week. She was suspended on Sunday, and on Tuesday the Labour caucus unanimously approved the decision.
“I have been expelled,” Peyman said in a written statement after the fine was imposed. “These actions lead me to believe that some senators are attempting to blackmail me into resigning from the Senate.”
Peyman, the first woman to serve in Australia’s parliament wearing a hijab and at 29 the country’s youngest senator, said she was considering her position amid speculation she might leave Labor and spend the final four years of her six-year term as an independent.
The indefinite suspension leaves senators in political limbo, formally part of the government but excluded from government forums and internal communications.
Premier Anthony Albanese initially suspended Peyman for a week for breaching a 130-year-old party rule that requires all members to abide by caucus decisions – historically such insubordination has led to expulsion.
But Albanese and his coaching team increased that punishment to an indefinite suspension on Sunday after Peyman vowed to do the same thing again in a television interview.
“Senator Peyman’s conduct has caused him to fall outside the privileges that come with sitting in the Federal Parliamentary Labor Caucus,” Mr Albanese told parliament on Monday.
By not going so far as to expel the Western Australian senator, she is forced to either accept isolation or resign from Labor of her own volition – she has no need to quit parliament.
Peyman’s initial sentence was relatively light due to domestic political sensitivities over the Gaza war and concerns that the issue was straining social cohesion.
But some in the party were infuriated that other Labour MPs had historically toed the line on policy positions that they also strongly oppose.
Across the party, Peyman has drawn support from progressives who are angry that the left-leaning prime minister has not taken a tougher stance against Israel on the Gaza conflict. Green Senator Mehreen Faruqi said in the Senate on Monday that Labor had “shamefully sanctioned Peyman” and should instead focus its efforts on Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government.
The October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s war in Gaza have triggered regular protests in Australia, including graffiti attacks on the electoral offices of government members, smashing windows and causing other damage.
Mr Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have strongly condemned the surge in anti-Semitism linked to the Gaza war, and Mr Albanese has also acknowledged and criticised a rise in Islamophobia.
Peyman has been told she can rejoin the party if she agrees to “respect the caucus and her Labour colleagues” – but that comes as a condition of her pledging never to vote against the party’s wishes again – something she has shown no intention of doing.
“I know Australians are fair people and as far as I know about the Labor Party, we are a party with a conscience and that stands for human rights, whether that’s justice or fighting for freedom and equality,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Sunday. “So I believe I’ve upheld those principles of the party.”
The Prime Minister has not commented on Ms Peyman’s claims of intimidation from her colleagues, but Government Minister Bill Shorten said on Tuesday he did not believe she had been “threatened or ostracized”.
Peyman has publicly used the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which some have seen as an opposition to the existence of the state of Israel. He said he only uses the phrase to describe liberation and that he believes Israel has a right to exist.
Labour supports recognition of a Palestinian state but as part of a two-state solution in the Middle East, and tried unsuccessfully to amend the Greens’ motion last week to add “as part of a peace process that supports a two-state solution and a just and lasting peace.” The original Greens motion was defeated 52-13, with Labour and the Conservative Opposition voting against it.
Some prominent Muslim leaders in Australia have backed Peyman’s defiant stance and have vowed to rally the community against the government in the next election, due by May.
