The essential difference between Senator Fatima Payman and the rest of the federal Labor caucus – and the Coalition caucus as well – is that she opposes genocide and wants the federal parliament to take effective action against it. She is a minority of one in the federal Labor-Coalition political class. Everything that has occurred Continue reading »
Israel / Palestine
At the coming elections, many of us will vote on the basis of a party’s or a candidate’s stance on the issue of Palestine. It will be a vote to reject the occupation, apartheid, the use of starvation as a weapon of war, and a myriad of other unspeakable horrors. And it will be an Continue reading »
The black and white banners unfurled from the battlements of Parliament House on 4 July made us remember 2003 when ‘No War’ appeared in red paint on the top sail of the Opera House. They lifted the spirits of all who then opposed Australia joining the war in Iraq and all who now want action Continue reading »
The conflict in Gaza has generated vigorous discussion about the assumed ethical prohibition against attacks on health facilities in times of war and the circumstances in which this prohibition might be validly circumvented. The actions of Hamas on October 7th 2023 have been widely condemned and no-one has attempted to offer an ethical justification for Continue reading »
In the wake of Labor Senator Fatima Payman’s shock decision to cross the floor and vote with the Greens against her party I was bemused, to say the least, to see social media light up with valiant attempts to press Gough Whitlam into service as the arbiter of what the ‘correct’ labor response should be. Continue reading »
When does politically-motivated violence, or terrorism if you prefer the bastardised term, become legitimate resistance to oppression, occupation and savagery? It’s an unavoidable question because with the exception of pacifists, everyone justifies the use of violence for some political cause – normally because they cast their advocacy as “defensive” and therefore legitimate. Even if your Continue reading »
Do Gazans truly die when their body is not whole or cannot be found and when they cannot be properly grieved? This is now a strange scene; to be at a funeral and see a shroud, inside which is a whole body with two hands, ten fingers, two feet, and a head. Nowadays, we Gazans Continue reading »
Senator Fatima Payman’s riveting conversation with David Speers on Sunday’s ABC Insiders program was powerful, erudite, compassionate and completely in line with Labor Party policy on Palestine. With her call for the party to recognise Palestine and take action to stop the massacres, the genocide and the forced starvation that is currently taking place in Continue reading »
Senator Fatima Payman is one of the youngest members of the Albanese Government. Until recently she was unknown to most Australians except in her home state of Western Australia. She first came to attention when she publicly challenged the Prime Minister to be more vocal about genocide in Gaza and this was followed by a Continue reading »
We are told that the high intensity phase of Israel’s war in Gaza is coming to an end. As world leaders contemplate new wars and a compliant media gets busy with freshly minted threats, there are fewer stories on Gaza. Let us not be lulled into believing that, for those besieged in Gaza, the worst Continue reading »