Ed Husic has become the first Labor MP to publicly call for the government to consider backing Palestinian statehood at an upcoming United Nations conference.
In an interview with SBS News after being dropped from the frontbench, Husic said the government should do "whatever we could do to back Palestinian statehood as quickly as possible".
"We've said as a party and in our platform that that's what we would push for. And I think whatever opportunity we can seize, we should," he said.
Husic said a UN conference on the "Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution" scheduled for early June would be one such opportunity.
While Husic's comments in support of Palestinian statehood are the strongest from any member of the government, to recognise the "permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources".
The vote represented a shift in position after abstaining on similar motions for two decades, and Labor ministers said it was an important step towards a two-state solution.
Labor figures usually express their support for Palestinian statehood only as part of a negotiated peace settlement with Israel, but Foreign Minister Penny Wong floated the idea of statehood on the path to a two-state solution during a speech during the first term of the Albanese government.
'It's not an accident'
Husic also said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government should be held accountable for its blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying it was causing "mass starvation".
"Where we are experiencing mass starvation there, and where that could be addressed by the freer flow of humanitarian aid, why is that not happening?" he said.
"That is a conscious decision. It's not an accident, and the use of starvation is recognised as a war crime under international humanitarian law, and so the Israeli government needs to be held accountable for that."
Husic said he was "proud" of some of Labor's previous moves such as the and the .
However, he suggested more needed to be done to address "the starving of people in Gaza, the moves by the Israeli parliament to annex Gaza and the atrocious behaviour of the Netanyahu government in prosecuting a campaign that has seen tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians killed".
Israel has faced after the collapse of a United States-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for two months.
Israel has accused agencies, including the UN, of allowing large quantities of aid to fall into the hands of Hamas militants, who it accuses of seizing supplies intended for civilians and using them for their own forces.
'Factional assassin'
Husic has been removed by internal powerbrokers, a move understood to be signed off by Victorian right faction leader Marles.
Speaking for the first time since being axed from his industry minister job, Husic said Marles had chosen to "wield the factional club to reshape the ministry".
"I think that when people look at a deputy prime minister, they expect to see a statesman, not a factional assassin," he said.
Asked if Marles put his ambition to boost his numbers ahead of the good of the Labor Party and the government, Husic said "a lot of people would draw that conclusion".
Following , the party's progressive left and more conservative right factions have been carving up the 30 spots in the ministry.
Husic was dumped to rebalance the ledger between the NSW and Victorian right, with the former over-represented in cabinet as spots are decided on a proportional basis between factions and states.
Mark Dreyfus has also lost his spot as attorney-general in the factional rejig. Dreyfus is set to be replaced by Victorian MP Sam Rae.
On Friday, former prime minister Paul Keating criticised "factional lightweights" for demoting Husic and Dreyfus, calling it an "appalling" decision.
He said dropping Husic signalled "contempt for the measured and centrist support provided by the broader Muslim community to the Labor Party at the general election".
'I just couldn’t stay silent'
During his appearance on the ABC's Insiders program on Sunday, Husic, who had been the cabinet's sole Muslim member, also suggested .
When asked by host David Speers if he thought his stance had "cost" him, Husic responded: "I think it's been a factor in there. Would I do things differently? I don't think so."
Husic said he had taken the view that "you need to speak up for the communities that you care about" and that he couldn't "stay silent in the face of innocent civilians' slaughters, tens of thousands starved out of Gaza".
"So, I tried to find the way to be able to speak to the Cabinet table and speak elsewhere, to be able to make sure that their voices are heard," he said.
"I think I fulfilled my role not just as a cabinet minister but as a caucus member. You should have the ability to speak up on the issues that you believe in. You should have the ability to question. It builds a stronger, not a weaker, party, to do so."
Husic made headlines in late 2023 after saying Palestinians were being "collectively punished for Hamas' barbarism" and that — comments more strident than those offered by other Labor figures at the time.
To SBS News, Husic said: "I just couldn't stay silent."
"Tens of thousands of people being killed, people turning to their elected representatives, not wanting lines of the day. They want an expression of values about what we think, what we'll do, how we'll respond," he said.
"I think that's important and you want to celebrate diversity as we've had in the cabinet, you can't expect it to then sit in the corner and say nothing. People from backgrounds like mine will always feel morally compelled to speak."
When asked by SBS News if he would be stronger in his advocacy from the backbench, Husic said: "It does provide for an opportunity to speak up much more openly."
"Obviously, it's a responsibility that you have to exercise those opportunities to speak up properly, maturely, and I will do that at the appropriate points," he said.
He said he had no plans to move to the crossbench — as former Labor senator Fatima Payman did over the party's stance on Palestinian issues — and hoped to return to the frontbench one day.
