Fatima Payman’s resignation from the Labor Party shone a light on the level of discontent with Anthony Albanese and his support for the Gaza genocide. Adam Demir was vice-president of the WA party’s Multicultural branch until he too resigned from Labor.
He told Solidarity, “I joined the Labor Party because I thought it aligned with my values. I thought the Labour Party was there to advocate for people who are marginalised or disenfranchised. But obviously I was wrong.
“Albanese had a good history as far as the Palestinian issue was concerned. When he was young, he was pro-Palestinian. And when he came to power, he revoked the decision of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. But after 7 October, he changed his stance 180 degrees. We feel like we’ve been cheated.
“There is big resentment, not just only within communities, but big discontent even in Labor branches within Albanese’s electorate, and here in WA, in the Multicultural Labor branch and other branches as well. There’s a lot of rank-and-file members either resigning or expressing their discontent.
“I have visited the university camps for Palestine. I went to rallies. There’s big support here not just from Muslim and Arab communities, from mainstream society as well.
“If anyone thought Israel was going to accept peace, they’ve now realised that wasn’t their intention. I think recently that was proven when the Israeli Knesset rejected a Palestinian state 68 to 9 votes. That showed that they weren’t interested in a peace process or anything like that.”
Efforts to criticise Albanese’s stance and build support for Palestine inside the party have been shut down, he explained.
“The response is either they try to silence you or they try to undermine what you have to say. If you try to bring a motion, for instance, they try to either attack it or water it down.
“I actually resigned right after Fatima Payman in protest of Fatima’s treatment. It’s total hypocrisy because Fatima was in line with Labor policy as per the 2021 National Conference decision to recognise Palestine as a state. Albanese himself, for whatever reason, decided to go other direction and bullied and ostracised Fatima.
“We were shocked and appalled for the treatment that she went through. That opened our eyes and we felt we were cheated all along. Albanese is not going to get our support anymore.”
