Jordan’s Queen Rania, 53, who has previously been a long-time advocate for the rights of the Palestinian people, said it was “the first time in modern history that there is such human suffering and the world is not even calling for a ceasefire.”
Jordan’s Queen Rania accused the mainstream Western media of using “blatant double standards” in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. The queen also criticised the media for failing to condemn the civilian deaths caused by Tel Aviv’s bombing of the Gaza Strip as the conflict threatens to destabilise relations between the United States and Arab leaders, CNN reported. She said on Amanpour and Co, in a video interview from the Jordanian capital, Amman:
The people all around the Middle East, including in Jordan, we are just shocked and dissapounted by world’s reaction to this catastrophe that is unfolding. In the last couple of weeks, we have seen a glaring double standart in the world.
The Jordanian royal said that when “October 7 happened” the world “immediately and unequivocally” supported Israel and its right to self-defence, but in the past couple of weeks “we have seen silence in the world”. In her interview to CNN, Jordan’s Queen said:
As a mom, we’ve seen Palestinian mothers who have to write the names of their children on their hands – because the chances of them being shelled to death, of their bodies turning into corpses are so high. I just want to remind the world that Palestinian mothers love their children as much as any other mother in the world.
According to the Queen, there is a sense that the Western world is “complicit” in the mass deaths of civilians. She told CNN:
Are we being told that is wrong to kill a family, an entire family, at gunpoint, but it’s OK to shell them to death? I mean, there is a glaring double standard here. It is just shocking to the Arab world.
On 7 October, the morning in Israel began with massive Hamas shelling from Palestine. In response, Israel launched the military operation “Iron Swords”. The UN counted the death toll at over 5,000 in Gaza and as high as 1,400 in Israel.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza at a speech to the UN Security Council on Tuesday and said “humanitarian pauses” should be considered, but notably avoided the phrase “ceasefire,” CNN reported.
The US, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, last week vetoed a Brazilian-led Security Council proposal for a humanitarian pause in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas to deliver aid to Gaza. The US criticised the draft resolution for failing to include Israel’s right to self-defence. The United Kingdom also refused to support the resolution. A previous Russian ceasefire agreement similarly failed, CNN reported.
Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi stressed on Tuesday at a press conference on the sidelines of the UN Security Council’s open debate on the situation in the Middle East that Palestinian lives are no less valuable than Israeli lives.
Safadi said that the Arab Group rejected the killing of civilians regardless of their nationality or religion, stressing the importance of ending Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip, the politician also called for the urgent delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip, according to a Jordan Times report. Safadi said the only solution to the conflict in the Middle East was to grant the Palestinian people their rights and establish their independent state on the lines of 4 June 1967. Continuing the war in Gaza will not bring security, peace or stability, he said.
He said support for the war being waged by Israel creates “a dangerous impression in our region that this war is being fought between the West, the Arabs and Islam,” Jordan Times reported. Safadi warned of the danger of the current conflict in Gaza spreading to Lebanon and the West Bank.
Jordan recently cancelled a planned summit in Amman with United States President Joe Biden and Egyptian and Palestinian leaders to discuss Gaza following Biden’s visit to Israel last week. Jordan’s King Abdullah was expected to host the four-party summit, with the need to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza to avert a humanitarian catastrophe on the agenda.
