Amman: Queen Rania, wife of King Abdullah II of Jordan, commenting on the large scale civilian deaths in Gaza lashed out at Israel saying Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right Zionist regime is "slaughtering innocents in the name of self-defence".
“Under the guise of self-defense we are witnessing atrocities. Every country has the right to defence itself. But not through war crimes. Not through collective punishment”, she said while talking to CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour in an interview broadcasted Tuesday October 24, 2023.
“6,000 civilians have been killed so far, including 2,400 children. How is that self-defense?” she asked.
“We are seeing butchery at mass scale using precision weapons”, Queen Rania, who was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents and grew up in the West Bank, said.
“For the past two weeks we are seeing indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza. Entire families wiped out. Residential neighborhoods flatten to the ground. The targeting of hospitals, schools, churches, mosques, medical workers, journalists and UN aid workers. How is that self-defence?” she asked.
Queen Rania also lashed out at the Western World for their double standards.
“Why is that whenever Israel commits atrocities that comes under the banner of self-defense but when there is a violence by Palestinians it is immediately called terrorism?”
“Is the word terrorism reserved exclusively for Muslims and Arabs?” she asked.
“There is a real double standard here”, she said.
“When October 7 happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and its right to defend itself and condemned the attack that happened. But what we’re seeing in the last couple of weeks, we’re seeing silence in the world,” Queen Rania said.
“This is the first time in modern history that there is such human suffering and the world is not even calling for ceasefire”, Queen Rania added. “So the silence is deafening – and to many in our region, it makes the Western world complicit.”
“Are we being told that it 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,” she said.
“It is just shocking to the Arab world”, she said.
During the interview, Amanpour warned the queen that she will “come under a lot of criticism from Israel and its supporters” for calling Israel an “apartheid” state.
The royal responded:
“Let me just emphasize that, that apartheid is a designation that was given not by Arabs, but by Israeli and international human rights organizations.”
"This conflict did not begin on October 7, although it has been portrayed as that. You know, most networks are covering the story under the title of Israel at War", Rania continued.
"But for many Palestinians on the other side of the separation wall, and the other side of the barbed wire, war has never left", she said.
“This is a 75-year-old story, a story of overwhelming death and displacement to the Palestinian people,” the queen said, referring to the Israeli occupation and the “dehumanization” of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza through “daily indignities and human rights violations.”
“There is a hyper fixation on Hamas now, because of what happened the last couple of weeks. But this is a problem that far precedes Hamas, and will continue after Hamas. This is a fight for freedom and for justice.”
In a world exclusive, @QueenRania of Jordan spoke with me about the ongoing bombing of Gaza, civilian deaths, the massacres of October 7, and what she calls “a glaring double standard” in the west’s reaction to all this. Watch our full conversation. pic.twitter.com/68QUO3Vez9— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) October 24, 2023
In a world exclusive, @QueenRania of Jordan spoke with me about the ongoing bombing of Gaza, civilian deaths, the massacres of October 7, and what she calls “a glaring double standard” in the west’s reaction to all this. Watch our full conversation. pic.twitter.com/68QUO3Vez9
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