There should be more forgiving people in politics and colleagues should be able to welcome back a senator who speaks his mind openly, says a Labor MP, warning that not all Australians of Muslim descent will vote unanimously.
Peter Khalil is under pressure from the Greens in his Melbourne constituency of Wills to take a tougher stance against Israel and cross party lines to support a Palestinian state, as Fatima Payman did in the Senate.
He called on people to be more lenient in politics and said he would be happy to welcome Senator Payman back.
Khalil did not directly respond to reports that she had spoken to a political strategist and a Muslim grassroots group targeting Labour MPs, but she said that in politics, people make mistakes.
“I would like to see Fatima back in our group. People make mistakes all the time and it is important to forgive people,” he told ABC radio on Wednesday.
“Sometimes people do the wrong thing. I’m not perfect and Fatima certainly isn’t either.”
All parties wanted the same thing, “namely an end to human suffering and an end to a foreign conflict,” Khalil said.
The government has consistently called for and voted for a ceasefire at the United Nations, provided $100 million in humanitarian aid and helped people flee Gaza, he said.
The Labor Party also supports a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution in which Israel and Palestine could live side by side in peace and security. But change cannot be achieved by repeatedly using motions as a gimmick in Parliament, he said.
“All diplomatic efforts are being made to ensure that the parties reach a ceasefire to end this conflict,” Mr Khalil said.
Diversity is welcome in the caucus room, but Senator Payman did not use the opportunity to advance or raise policy options for the recognition of Palestine, said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Labor MPs said in private talks that they had made a conscious effort not to exclude the West Australian completely, but expressed anger at her approach to the issue rather than pushing for change internally.
The Greens are using the affair as an opportunity to urge the government to take tougher measures against Israel, including sanctions against the prime minister and the expulsion of the ambassador.
Green Senator David Shoebridge also criticised the government for failing to raise concerns about the destruction of a Commonwealth war memorial in Gaza.
About 260 soldiers are buried in a war cemetery in Gaza.
The cemetery was damaged and the head gardener’s house destroyed, but there has been no update from Israel on the damage since March, a government official said at a parliamentary hearing.
An official confirmed that the Israeli military had not launched an investigation into how the damage occurred.
The Greens are considering whether to submit another pro-Palestinian motion in the Senate to continue to exert pressure and force the government to act.
Senator Payman said she would switch sides again in similar circumstances, saying the Prime Minister would be daring to expel her from the party and giving the Greens the opportunity to exploit the move for their election campaign.
The Greens are also considering a motion in the House of Commons to specifically target Labour MPs with a high proportion of Muslims in their seats.
“Australian Muslims are not a homogenous bloc,” warned former Labor strategist and current pollster Kos Samaras on the social media site X.
“That said, in some of these constituencies, losing 5,000 votes in the primary election to an independent could put Labour MPs or candidates in a very precarious position.”
His research also found that Green voters were turning away from them because they were too focused on anti-Semitic rhetoric and some Jewish Greens felt “abandoned.”