Pro-Palestine activists scale Australian Parliament House, unfurl banners as Sen. Payman quits Labor

Pro-Palestinian protesters unfurled banners from the roof of Australia's Federal Parliament House in Canberra as a senator quit the government over its direction on Israel's war on Gaza. The four protesters were arrested after unfurling banners with the words "war crimes" and "genocide" as well as the Palestinian rallying cry "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" for more than an hour over the building’s façade known as the Great Verandah. Police said the four protesters were expected to be charged with trespassing and have been banned from Parliament House for two years. Meanwhile inside the building, Senator Fatima Payman, the only Australian federal lawmaker ever to wear a hijab during sittings, announced she had quit the ruling Labour Party over her refusal to toe the party line on Gaza and Palestine. The first-term senator's resignation comes after she defied her government colleagues last week by supporting a minor party’s motion that demanded the Senate "recognise the state of Palestine". Payman, who was born in Afghanistan, will retain her seat in the upper house as an independent senator. She is the first lawmaker to leave the Australian Labor Party since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's administration was elected in 2022. Australia does not recognise a Palestinian state. The government has said it was committed to a two-state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state can coexist, in peace and security, within internationally recognised borders.