Cloudflare fetched the original article and streamed it through HTMLRewriter to apply an entirely new visual system without rebuilding the source page.
// request.cf · coarse context
A page that knows where it met you.
Only coarse request metadata is shown. This demo does not display or persist visitor IP addresses.
This article was nominated for deletion on 13 May 2025. The result of the discussion was keep.
This article is written in Australian English, which has its own spelling conventions (centre, colour, realise, program, travelled) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.
This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.This page is about a politician who is running for office or has recently run for office, is in office and campaigning for re-election, or is involved in some current political conflict or controversy. For that reason, this article is at increased risk of biased editing, talk-page trolling, and simple vandalism.If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.
This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography
Basem Abdo is within the scope of WikiProject Australia, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Australia and Australia-related topics. If you would like to participate, visit the project page.AustraliaWikipedia:WikiProject AustraliaTemplate:WikiProject AustraliaAustralia
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Palestine, a team effort dedicated to building and maintaining comprehensive, informative and balanced articles related to the geographic Palestine region, the Palestinian people and the State of Palestine on Wikipedia. Join us by visiting the project page, where you can add your name to the list of members where you can contribute to the discussions.PalestineWikipedia:WikiProject PalestineTemplate:WikiProject PalestinePalestine-related
Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Whether or not he won, using the Proposed Deletion method for an election is almost always controversial. Controversial topics like religion, politics, social class, and race should be discussed more openly. Prod has no nuances to debate or discuss, and is also a "backwater" on Wikipedia. The appropriate forum is WP:AfD, where many of the most active Wikipedians debate publicly about nominations, and there are many options for alternatives to deletion. Bearian (talk) 02:41, 13 May 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 11 months ago30 comments9 people in discussion
Looked into the claim about who was the first Palestinain in the parliament. It seems on the surface that Joe Hockey was first, but his father was of Armenian descent according to ABCJon698 (talk) 06:42, 22 June 2025 (UTC)Reply
Abdo also clearly talks about his Palestinian heritage while all of the mentions of Hockey and Palestine is just about his father. Jon698 (talk) 06:46, 22 June 2025 (UTC)Reply
There's also Joe Berinson. This is complicated, because Berinson was Jewish, and since 1948, the term Palestinian Jew has fallen out of use. However, its obviously possible to say Berinson was the first person of Palestinian descent to be elected to the Australian Parliament. I think extraordinary claims require extraordinary sourcing, which https://amesnews.com.au is not. Steelkamp (talk) 06:48, 22 June 2025 (UTC)Reply
Also other sources list Hockey's father as being of Armenian descent. The usage of Palestinian in this context could be "person born in Palestine". Jon698 (talk) 07:21, 22 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
if Joe Hockeys father is Palestinian, does it not stand to reason Joe hockey is of palestinian descent? Are you asking to prove that is actually his father?? 49.183.33.206 (talk) 07:22, 22 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
Sources differ on the ethnic identity of Hockey's father and Hockey himself has never made a newsworthy mention of having Palestinian heritage. Meanwhile Abdo has clearly identified himself as a Palestinian. Jon698 (talk) 07:27, 22 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
sources don't differ, they all say his father was born in Palestine. You don't have to identify yourself as palestinian to descend from palestinians 49.183.33.206 (talk) 07:45, 22 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
Hockey advocated for Palestinian statehood because he was Palestinian, he established parliamentary friends of Palestine and was a very influential advocate of it.
Saying he never made a newsworthy remark on it is wrong. On his Wikipedia page, it states Joe Hockey was the first Palestinian in parliament and has for a very long time.
What's going on here? Where is this refusal to acknowledge Hockey's Palestinian heritage coming from? It's not controversial and never has been. This is a matter of public record and has been for years, it's an established and widely accepted fact. If sources say Abdo is the first then they are clearly mistaken; it would not be the first time that otherwise reliable sources have made and repeated an error. This is an obvious case of WP:COMMONSENSE and I would like to hear an explanation for why this obviously false claim should not be immediately removed. 5225C(talk•contributions) 11:55, 22 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
- Abdo is obviously not the first MP to have Palestinian heritage, insofar as he is not the first MP to have direct family from the area of Palestine. Berinson for one, but also Hockey. This does not, to me, seem controversial.
- Abdo has been occasionally reported, as already cited, as being the first MP of Palestinian heritage. I can't recall if I added that factoid to this article, but I believe I've seen it in the media before, and reliable sources like the SBS said as such.
- Abdo is obviously the first MP of ethnically Palestinian ancestry -- he is the son of Palestinian refugees, and is ethnically Palestinian. See: Palestinian-Australian in The Guardian, first Palestinian-Australian in SMH, Labor's Palestinian-Australian candidate in The Australian.
Meanwhile, while Hockey's father is obviously Palestinian -- ethnically Armenian, but from the country of Palestine, I have found very few sources that claim that Hockey himself is. A Google search for "Joe Hockey" and "Palestinian" produces a lot of stuff citing Hockey's Palestinian heritage -- the already cited APAN source where Anthony Albanese says his dad was born in Bethlehem, AFR calling him fathered by a Palestinian orphan and saying his dad was born a Catholic Palestinian in Bethlehem. SMH calls Hockey the son of a Palestinian (and also mentions Hockey called himself Arab outside a mosque in Lakemba). 9 News says Hockey is always be proud of his Palestinian heritage. And SBS says Hockey is the son of an Armenian-born Palestinian.
To me, it seems incorrect to describe Abdo as the first MP of Palestinian heritage. There are multiple reliable sources saying that Joe Hockey also had Palestinian heritage, and obviously there's the case of Berinson, the son of Palestinian Jews. But Abdo seems to me to be the first ethnically Palestinian MP, and I think this is worth noting. I would perhaps replace the current wording with any of "Abdo is the first ethnically Palestinian MP to serve in the Parliament of Australia", "Abdo is the first Palestinian to serve in the Parliament of Australia", or "Abdo is the first Palestinian Arab to serve in the Parliament of Australia". LivelyRatification (talk) 12:49, 22 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
To clarify slightly, there is obviously an abundance of sources of saying that Joe Hockey is of Palestinian heritage. I am not convinced that many describe Joe Hockey himself as Palestinian without any qualifiers. Hell, I could only find the SMH source saying that Hockey had ever described himself as Palestinian ("In many meetings [Hockey] has brought up that he's Palestinian, mentioned supporting the Palestinian cause, the human rights cause"). LivelyRatification (talk) 12:53, 22 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
Also after some further reading, I can find no sources calling Joe Berinson Palestinian. A speech from Peter Collier says his father was born "in what was then Palestine", this from a record about his sister says his parents were from Safed, Palestine, the Australian Dictionary of Biography says he was born to Jewish immigrants from Palestine. An ABC article from 2003 about a newspaper ad from the "Hamas Support Group" makes no mention of Berinson or his parents' background, despite comment from him in his capacity as a representative of the Jewish Community Council. A cursory search of Google Books also finds nothing, although I wouldn't be surprised if there was more information available in digitally unavailable literary sources. LivelyRatification (talk) 23:03, 22 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=logo}
