Australian Labor senator Fatima Payman has crossed the floor, voting in support of a Greens motion on recognizing Palestinian statehood in a move that imperils her party membership.

While Coalition backbenchers are allowed to cross the floor, the Labor party requires all of its parliamentarians to support collective decisions or face the possibility of expulsion. Some Labor members to have crossed the floor have been expelled from the party and others have been suspended, the Guardian reported. 

After crossing the floor, Payman, a first-term senator for Western Australia, described it as the “most difficult decision” she has had to make.

She told reporters what would happen next was the party’s “prerogative”, but she would like to continue serving as a Labor senator. Payman said she believed she had “upheld the party ethos and called for what the party’s platform has stipulated”.

Payman said she crossed the floor “for humanity”, adding she was “bitterly disappointed” her colleagues did not feel the same.