A Labor senator who accused Israel of carrying out genocide on the Palestinian people has resigned from her position on two parliamentary foreign affairs committees.

Senator Payman urged her colleagues, including the prime minister, to "stand for what is right" and said that her conscience had been "uneasy for far too long" as she watched the war in Gaza from afar.

Her comments were described as "inappropriate" by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and were seized upon by the federal opposition as evidence of a split within Labor on foreign policy.

Government frontbencher Bill Shorten suggested earlier this month he would step down from the foreign affairs committee if he held the same view as his Labor colleague.

Liberal MP Julian Lesser asked the prime minister in parliament earlier this month whether he would "show strong, not weak, leadership and remove Senator Payman from the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade".

Israel has repeatedly denied claims of genocide, which is defined under international law as killing or harming members of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group with "intent to destroy, in whole or in part".

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