IN THE WORDS OF QUEEN RANIA AL ABDULLAH OF JORDAN

"Supporting the protection of Palestinian lives does not equal being anti-Semitic or pro-terrorism. Let me be very, very clear. Being pro-Palestinian is not being anti-Semitic, being pro-Palestinian does not mean you’re pro-Hamas or pro-terrorism. What we’ve seen in recent years is the charge of antisemitism being weaponized in order to silence any criticism of Israel. I want to absolutely and wholeheartedly condemn antisemitism and Islamophobia…but I also want to remind everyone that Israel does not represent all the Jewish people around the world. Israel is a state and alone is responsible for its own crimes. I know that some who are against the ceasefire argue that it will help Hamas. However, I feel that in that argument, they are inherently dismissing the death, in fact, even endorsing and justifying the death of thousands of civilians, and that is just morally reprehensible.  Israel’s claim of trying to protect civilians is an insult to one’s intelligence. When 1.1 million people are asked to leave their homes or risk death, that is not a protection of civilians, that is forced displacement. I don't believe Israel’s evacuation orders were for the benefit of Gaza, but rather an attempt to “legitimize its actions. Trying to minimize the horrific consequences of their actions, trying to dehumanize Palestinians further and desensitize people to their suffering…they’re trying to exonerate themselves and they’re trying to exonerate the viewer. How many more people must die before “our global conscience awakes.” All they want to hear is apologies from Palestinians. You’re being bombed, that’s your fault,” “You’re being starved, that’s your fault. You dare be born in the occupied territories, that’s your fault… It’s been unbearable to watch the avalanche of human suffering. Western leaders show a glaring double standard for failing to condemn the deaths of civilians under Israeli bombardment in Gaza, and Israel’s war on Hamas threatens to destabilize relations between US and Arab leaders. 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. 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.

This is the first time in modern history that there is such human suffering and the world is not even calling for a ceasefire. 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. It is just shocking to the Arab world. 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 just as much as any other mother in the world. The people of Gaza face two choices. Essentially they’re given a choice between expulsion or extermination, between ethnic cleansing and genocide. And no people should be given, [should] have to face, that kind of choice. The people of Palestine should not, [the people] of Gaza should not, be forced to be moved again. More than half of Gaza’s population are refugees whose ancestors fled or were expelled from their homes in present-day Israel by armed Jewish groups during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which Palestinians call the Nakba or “the catastrophe.” Israel has never allowed them to return to their homes and many have lived in poverty ever since.  The conflict in the Middle East did not begin on October 7 when Hamas attacked Israel. Most networks are covering the story under the title of ‘Israel at war.’ But for many Palestinians on the other side of the separation wall, on the other side of the barbed wire, war has never left. 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 apartheid regime, that occupies lands, that demolishes houses, confiscates lands, military incursions, night raids. A two-state solution to establish a “free, sovereign and independent” Palestine is the only path to peace in the region. There can never be a resolution except around a negotiating table … there is only one path to this, and that is a free, sovereign, and independent Palestinian state, living side by side, in peace and security, with the state of Israel."