A Coalition senator accused the Labor backbencher Fatima Payman of “supporting terrorists” and then withdrew the claim, just hours after the Senate passed a motion opposing “inflammatory and divisive comments”.
The NSW Liberal senator Hollie Hughes denied she had directly referred to Payman as a “terrorist”, which is what was alleged by some senators who were sitting in the chamber at the time and did not wish to be named.
Hughes told Guardian Australia she said “you are supporting terrorists”, which she withdrew shortly afterwards.
Hughes was overheard interjecting numerous times in Senate question time on Thursday, while the opposition pressed the Labor government to say whether it had taken any action against Payman, a first term senator for Western Australia.
Payman on Wednesday broke ranks with her party’s position by directly accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and by using the politically charged phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the phrase used by Payman was “inappropriate”, and the Coalition successfully moved a motion in the Senate urging all senators to “engage in debate and commentary respectfully”.
In opposing the motion, the Greens said the “attempt to frame criticism of the state of Israel’s policies as antisemitic is utterly inappropriate”.
The motion, which was supported by Labor, included a clause stating that the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” was “frequently used by those who seek to intimidate Jewish Australians via acts of antisemitism”.
On Wednesday, Payman characterised the call as signifying “freedom from the occupation, freedom from the violence and freedom from the inequality”. Payman was not present for the vote on the motion on Thursday, although she was in attendance for Senate question time.
The independent senator Lidia Thorpe criticised Labor for “appalling” treatment of their own backbench senator, accusing the party of silencing its members.
“They should be ashamed. [Payman] was speaking honestly from the heart about something important she cares about. I commend her for that,” Thorpe said.
Prominent mainstream Jewish groups have labelled the “river to the sea” chant as “hateful”, but defenders of the phrase say it has a variety of meanings and can also refer to equal democratic rights and freedom for all Israelis and Palestinians.
Alex Ryvchin, the co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, a peak group, said it was “an old Arab supremacist slogan calling for the destruction of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of its Jewish population”.
Under this reading, the phrase calls for full Palestinian control in the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and excludes the possibility of a state of Israel.
“The Australian Jewish community is grateful for this [Senate] motion and to the vast majority of senators who had the decency to vote for it,” Ryvchin said.
But advocates, including the Palestinian-US writer Yousef Munayyer, have argued the phrase reflects a desire for Palestinians to “live in their homeland as free and equal citizens, neither dominated by others nor dominating them”.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, from the Likud party, said in January he would not compromise on full Israeli security control west of the Jordan River. In 1977, Likud’s original platform said: “between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty”.
The Greens senator Jordon Steele-John told the Senate his party “recognised the reality that the policies of the state of Israel are increasingly rendering a two-state solution unachievable”.
The president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, Nasser Mashni, said the Senate motion appeared to be an attempt “to shrink the space for Palestinians and civil society groups to defend human rights”.
“We’re outraged that the major parties and the mainstream media have contorted the words of a liberation movement – a movement advocating for the end of Israeli apartheid in Palestine, and defending global values such as freedom, and equality for all – into words of hate,” Mashni said.
The Coalition’s Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, said too many Australians of Jewish background “now go about their lives in Australia in a state of fear”.
“We call on the prime minister to take appropriate action and to ensure members of his government, members of his party, do not act in ways and repeat phrases that incite, fuel or are used by those who incite and fuel hatred or antisemitism,” Birmingham said.
The Liberal MP Julian Leeser told parliament the phrase “demands the destruction of the Jewish state” and he asked whether Albanese would “show strong, not weak, leadership and remove Senator Payman from the joint standing committee on foreign affairs, defence and trade”.
Albanese avoided the specific question, but praised Leeser “for the principled stance that he has taken about the rise in antisemitism”.
“The chant ‘from the river to the sea’ has been used from time to time by some in the pro-Palestinian movement; [and] by some who argue that Israel should be just one state as well and that Gaza and West Bank should be wiped out,” Albanese said.
“It is inappropriate. I very strongly believe in a two-state solution. I strongly believe in the right of Israel to exist within secure borders. I strongly believe as well in the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people.”
Further comment was sought from Payman.
