Jordan’s Queen Rania Rues West’s ‘Glaring Double Standard’ on Gaza

A handout picture released by the Press Service of Jordan's Queen Rania on October 24, 2023, shows her speaking in an exclusive CNN interview from Amman about the ongoing Gaza bombing. (Photo by Queen Rania’s Office / AFP)
A handout picture released by the Press Service of Jordan's Queen Rania on October 24, 2023, shows her speaking in an exclusive CNN interview from Amman about the ongoing Gaza bombing. (Photo by Queen Rania’s Office / AFP)
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Jordan’s Queen Rania Rues West’s ‘Glaring Double Standard’ on Gaza

A handout picture released by the Press Service of Jordan's Queen Rania on October 24, 2023, shows her speaking in an exclusive CNN interview from Amman about the ongoing Gaza bombing. (Photo by Queen Rania’s Office / AFP)
A handout picture released by the Press Service of Jordan's Queen Rania on October 24, 2023, shows her speaking in an exclusive CNN interview from Amman about the ongoing Gaza bombing. (Photo by Queen Rania’s Office / AFP)

Jordan's Queen Rania accused Western leaders of a "glaring double standard" for not condemning Israel's killing of Palestinian civilians in its bombardment of Gaza, in an interview aired Wednesday.

The royal, born to Palestinian parents in Kuwait, blasted Western nations for opposing a blanket ceasefire and said their silence gave the impression they were "complicit" in Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip.  

"The people all around the Middle East, including in Jordan, we are just shocked and disappointed by the world's reaction to this catastrophe that is unfolding. In the last couple of weeks, we have seen a glaring double standard in the world," she told CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

"When October 7 happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and its right to defend itself and condemned the attack," she said of the day when Hamas militants began a rampage that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped more than 220 others, Israeli officials say.

"But what we're seeing in the last couple of weeks, we're seeing silence in the world."  

Israel has responded with relentless air strikes on the tiny Palestinian territory which Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says have killed 6,546 people, mostly civilians and many of them children.  

It has also imposed a total siege on Gaza's 2.4 million residents who are facing a "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis, the United Nations says.  

'The silence is deafening'  

"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?" Queen Rania asked.  

Many Western governments have repeatedly and publicly voiced their support for Israel while also urging it to respect international law.  

Queen Rania said of the West's refusal to back a ceasefire that "the silence is deafening and, to many in our region, it makes the Western world complicit through their support and through the cover that they give Israel".  

Israel and its allies have so far rebuffed calls for a blanket ceasefire, which the White House has said would only benefit Hamas.  

The United States last week vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for a "humanitarian pause" in the raging Israel-Hamas conflict, saying the text did not recognize Israel's right to defend itself.  

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday spoke of "epic suffering" in Gaza, and said there had been "clear violations of international law".  

Guterres sparked a furious reaction from Israeli diplomats when he said that the Hamas attack "did not happen in a vacuum".  

That sentiment was shared by Queen Rania, who told CNN that it was wrong to say the conflict started on October 7.  

"This is a 75-year-old story; a story of overwhelming death and displacement to the Palestinian people. It is a story of an occupation under an apartheid regime," she said.  

When pressed on that claim, Rania cited international human rights organizations, which have previously accused Israel of apartheid.  

Israel responded to a 2022 Amnesty International report which said it was perpetrating apartheid by calling Amnesty a "radical organization", and saying the country was "a democracy committed to international law".



EU Urges Immediate Halt to Israel-Hezbollah War

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
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EU Urges Immediate Halt to Israel-Hezbollah War

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)

Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell called for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war while on a visit to Lebanon on Sunday, as the group claimed attacks deep into Israel.  

The Israeli military said Iran-backed Hezbollah fired around 160 projectiles into Israel during the day. Some of them were intercepted but others caused damage to houses in central Israel, according to AFP images.  

A day after the health ministry said Israeli strikes on Beirut and across Lebanon killed 84 people, state media reported two strikes on Sunday on the capital's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Israel's military said it had attacked "headquarters" of the group "hidden within civilian structures" in south Beirut.

War between Israel and Hezbollah escalated in late September, nearly a year after the group began launching strikes in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas following that group's October 7 attack on Israel.

The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September.  

On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.  

Earlier this week, US special envoy Amos Hochstein said in Lebanon that a truce deal was "within our grasp" and then headed to Israel for talks with officials there.  

In the Lebanese capital, Borrell held talks with parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation efforts on behalf of ally Hezbollah.

"We see only one possible way ahead: an immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701," Borrell said.  

"Lebanon is on the brink of collapse", he warned.  

Under Resolution 1701, which ended the last Hezbollah-Israel war of 2006, Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only armed forces present in the southern border area.  

The resolution also called for Israel to withdraw troops from Lebanon, and reiterated earlier calls for "disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon."