Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi has repeatedly refused to say whether she believes “Hamas should be dismantled,” arguing that it is not up to her to say “who should disappear and who should not.”
Ms Faruqi appeared on ABC’s Insiders programme on Sunday morning following the party’s failed attempt to get parliament to recognise Palestinian statehood this week.
The issue prompted now independent senator Fatima Payman to resign from the Labor Party after being ostracised when she crossed party lines to side with the Greens.
Ms Faruqi criticised Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his government for failing to support the bill without adding “qualifications”.
However, when asked about her position, Ms Faruqi could not say whether she wanted Hamas to be abolished as a condition for statehood.
The New South Wales senator was asked five times whether the Islamic terrorist group responsible for the 7 October attacks should be eliminated or disbanded.
“Hamas has nothing to do with recognising the Palestinian state,” he told host David Speers.
‘Recognizing the Palestinian state means that Palestinians can achieve self-determination.’
Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi has sidestepped questions about whether Hamas, a terror group that controls the Gaza Strip, should be dismantled to make way for a Palestinian state.
Asked further on the issue, the senator said: “I cannot repeat it again and again, (Hamas) has nothing to do with the Palestinian state.”
‘The Palestinians need to decide where they want to go with their own region, not with the intervention of Western countries.’
Speers noted that Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization and told the senator: “Surely you can say whether you would like to see them disappear or not.”
“It’s not up to me to say who should go and who shouldn’t,” he replied.
Ms Faruqi said she could not answer the question because it was based on a “hypothetical situation” if the Palestinians were granted statehood.
He then turned his attention to the Albanese Government, which withdrew its support after his proposed amendments to the bill were not taken up.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the government would have supported the motion if Palestinian recognition was “part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and lasting peace.”
Ms Wong later told reporters the Greens’ motion was strictly “about policy, not about change”.
Ms Faruqi responded to the claim, saying she was “really sick and tired of being misled by the Labour Party in that Parliament”.
“I was stunned that the Labour Party wants to talk about peace while doing absolutely nothing.”
This comes after Labour opposed a Greens Senate motion to recognise Palestinian statehood, sparking a protest in Parliament (pictured) and the resignation of a senator.
Opposition to the Greens’ motion caused headaches for the Labour Party, with pro-Palestine protesters gathering outside Parliament on Thursday.
Protesters climbed onto the roof of parliament and unfurled banners with popular chants in favour of the pro-Palestine movement, one of which included a Hamas symbol.
“That upside-down red triangle is Hamas symbolism that is supposed to indicate IDF goals and Israeli goals in the context of the war in Israel and Gaza,” said Senator James Patterson.
The party was left with one fewer seat in the upper house just hours later when WA Senator Fatima Payman announced she was resigning to become an independent senator.
Ms Payman was indefinitely suspended from her party’s parliamentary group meetings last Sunday after she revealed she would have no qualms about speaking again on motions involving Palestine.
The attention paid to the division within the ALP took some steam out of the tax cuts and cost-of-living measures the government had introduced.
Premier Anthony Albanese on Friday criticised Senator Payman’s decision to leave the Labor Party and warned parties against “going down the path of faith-based political parties” because it undermines social cohesion.