Queen Rania: Israel commits atrocities under the guise of self-defense

Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan expressed the Arab world's shock and disappointment at the world's "blatant double standards" and "deafening silence" in the face of the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.

She confirmed, in a live interview with journalist Christiane Amanpour on CNN yesterday evening, Tuesday, that despite the prevailing narrative in Western media, “this conflict did not begin on the seventh of October.”

Most networks cover the story under the headline “Israel is at war,” she said, but for the Palestinians on the other side of the separation wall and the other side of the barbed wire, the war has never left. This is a 75-year-old story, a story of death and displacement of the Palestinian people.

She added - during the interview - that the novel neglected to highlight that nuclear-armed regional superpower that occupies, persecutes and commits documented daily crimes against the Palestinians.

She pointed out that Palestinian mothers were forced to write their children's names on their hands because of the high probability of them being bombed to death and their bodies turning into corpses and body parts.

She stressed that the rules of engagement must apply to everyone, noting that Israel commits brutal acts under the guise of self-defense.

She said, "6 thousand civilians have been martyred so far, 2,400 children. How can this be considered self-defense? We see massacres on a large scale using high-precision weapons. So over the past two weeks, we have seen indiscriminate bombing of Gaza. Entire families have been exterminated, and residential neighborhoods have been leveled." On the ground, targeting hospitals, schools, churches, mosques, medical workers, journalists, and United Nations aid workers. How is this considered self-defense?!”

Complicit West

Queen Rania pointed out that for many in the region, the Western world is complicit in this war through the support and cover it gives to Israel.

She said, "This is the first time in modern history that we are witnessing such human suffering, and the world is not calling for a ceasefire."

Speaking about what the Palestinian people are suffering from, she said, “There are more than 500 checkpoints spread throughout the West Bank,” stressing that Israel is violating at least 30 UN resolutions demanding that it alone work to withdraw from the territories occupied in 1967, and stop settlement and the separation wall. and human rights violations.

She noted that Israel has been classified as an “apartheid regime” by Israeli and international human rights organizations.

She considered that Israel's allies were doing it no favors by providing blind support to it. “Accelerating and expanding the scope of providing lethal weapons to Israel will only lead to the expansion of this conflict. It will only prolong and deepen the suffering.”

Duality of standards

In criticizing the role of the media in covering the current conflict, Queen Rania pointed to the double standards of interlocutors in the West who ask those representing the Palestinian side to issue immediate condemnations.

She also spoke about the suppression of expressions of solidarity with the Palestinians in Western democracies, noting that, "When people gather in support of Israel, they are exercising their right to assemble. But when they gather for the sake of Palestine, they are considered sympathizers with terrorists or anti-Semites."

"Freedom of expression is a universal value, except when Palestine is mentioned," she said.