Queen Rania of Jordan has launched a remarkable attack on the West, accusing countries that support Israel’s war against Hamas of “aiding and abetting” the murder of Palestinians and denouncing a “flanking double standard” in response to the dead.
Rania, born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents and raised in the West Bank, spoke with barely concealed anger about the Israeli shelling of Gaza, calling the Western world “complicit.”
Unable to directly condemn Hamas, she called Israel “an apartheid regime” that “occupies, oppresses Palestinians and commits documented crimes on a daily basis.”
Rania said the Western world “gave Israel cover: that it only wants to defend itself,” and said the 75-year conflict was “a struggle for freedom and justice.”
She criticized Joe Biden for saying he had seen photos of babies beheaded by Hamas, only for the White House to walk back and say it was unconfirmed. It has now been confirmed that such horrors occurred.
And she said there was a “shocking” difference in the global response to the killing of Israelis by Hamas, and to the killing of Gazans by Israel.
“Are we being told that it’s wrong to kill a family, an entire family, at gunpoint, but it’s okay to shoot them dead?” she asked CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
“I mean, there’s a blatant double standard here.
“And it’s just shocking for the Arab world.”
Queen Rania on Tuesday condemned the “glaring double standard” in the global response to the deaths of Israelis and Palestinians.
The 53-year-old spoke to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and was asked how she responded to October 7 ‘as an Arab, as a Palestinian, as a mother, as a human being’
Amanpour began by asking the 53-year-old how she had felt since the October 7 Hamas attack “as an Arab, as a Palestinian, as a mother, as a human being.”
Rania replied: “I cannot describe the depth of sadness, pain and shock we feel here in Jordan.”
She said her country, home to the world’s largest Palestinian population, was “united in grief, regardless of our origins.”
Rania said she was shocked by the images of mothers writing their child’s names on their limbs so they could be identified if they were killed in airstrikes.
“I just want to remind the world that Palestinian mothers love their children as much as any other mother in the world,” she added.
The queen, who worked at Citibank and in Apple’s marketing department before marrying Abdullah, now the king, in 1993, said the Arab world was angry at the West’s hypocrisy.
Rania is pictured in 1987, at school in Kuwait, aged 17. She became queen at the age of 28
Queen Rania and King Abdullah married in 1993 and have four children
The royal couple are photographed during a visit to the White House in June 2018
The UN, the World Health Organization and others have called for an end to attacks on Gaza, and President Joe Biden has urged Israel to respect civilian life.
Rania said this was insufficient and denounced the “deafening silence” over the bombing of Gaza.
‘Why are there no calls for an immediate ceasefire? We see staggering human suffering happening today, so why is the story always skewed towards the Israeli side?’ she asked.
‘The Western media and policymakers are quickly adopting the Israeli stories. When Israel attacks, the Palestinians ‘die’, but when Israelis die, they are ‘killed’, ‘murdered in cold blood.’
She said the response to the Hamas attack was telling.
“When October 7 happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood with Israel and its right to defend itself, and condemned the attacks that took place,” she said.
‘But what we have seen in recent weeks is silence.
“Countries have stopped expressing their concerns or acknowledging the victims.
‘But always with a foreword of support for Israel.’
She said the West was too quick to accept the Israeli perspective and called out Biden for his response to claims that babies were beheaded.
“When the President of the United States is told that he has evidence, he has seen evidence of the beheading of children, only to retract it because the IDF said there is no evidence of that. That’s confirmation bias,” Rania said.
‘Even on your network Christiane, the CNN website, at the beginning of the conflict there was a headline about Israeli children being slaughtered in an Israeli kibbutz. And if you read through the story, that has not been independently verified.
“Now my question to you is: would you publish such a damning but unverified claim from Palestine….”
Amanpour said to her, “Queen Rania, I have to stop you there for a moment because photos have been shown by the Israelis and our journalists have been there. I’m not talking about beheadings, I’m talking about baby bodies covered in bullets.’
Jordan, Rania continued, condemns the murder of any citizen, Israeli or Palestinian.
She said the Pact of Omar in Islam commands Muslims to respect human life.
“I just want to emphasize that this conflict did not start on October 7, even if it is portrayed that way,” Rania continued.
Rescue workers pull a child from the rubble of a building after Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday
People gather Tuesday around a building destroyed by Israeli airstrikes to rescue injured civilians and pull bodies from the rubble
Tuesday was the bloodiest day in Gaza since the conflict began, with at least 704 deaths, according to Gaza authorities.
“You know, most networks run the story under the title Israel at War
“But for many Palestinians on the other side of the separation wall and on the other side of the barbed wire, the war never went away.
“This is a 75-year-old story – a story of overwhelming death and displacement for the Palestinian people.
‘It’s a story about an occupation under an apartheid regime that occupies land, demolishes houses, confiscates land, military raids, night raids.
“You know, the context of a nuclear-armed regional superpower occupying, oppressing, and committing daily documented crimes against the Palestinians is missing from the story.”
Amanpour told her that her words would likely be met with great anger by Israel.
“Let me just emphasize that apartheid is a designation given not by Arabs, but by Israeli and international human rights organizations,” she replied.
Rania added, “It’s not about me. It’s about standing up for humanity.
“You know, this isn’t about being pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian.
“This is about choosing the people, the ordinary people on both sides.
“And, you know, and explain again that the Palestinian people have lived under oppression and dehumanization for far too long.”
The mother of four said Palestinians “suffer daily humiliations and human rights violations,” saying there was no freedom of movement and condemning the 500 checkpoints in the West Bank; the ‘aggressive expansion of settlements in Palestinian territory’; and the ‘humiliation’ of her people.
She said Israel has violated UN resolutions and ignored international law.
“There is now a hyper fixation on Hamas because of everything that has happened in recent weeks,” she said.
“But this is a problem that far precedes Hamas and will continue after Hamas.
“This is a fight for freedom and for justice, and that is what needs to be heard.”