"Glaring double standard" on how the world treats Palestinians - Queen Rania

SHAH ALAM - Queen Rania of Jordan has accused Western leaders of a “glaring double standard” for failing to denounce the deaths of civilians under Israeli bombardment in Gaza.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Rania said the people all around the Middle East, including in Jordan are just shocked and disappointed by the world’s reaction to this catastrophe that has been unfolding.

"In the last couple of weeks, we have seen a glaring double standard in the world.

“When Oct 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.

"Why isn't there a call for an immediate ceasefire? We are seeing staggering human suffering happening today, so why is the narrative always skewed towards the Israeli side?

“The Western media and policymakers are quick to adopt the Israeli narratives. When Israel attacks, Palestinians ‘die,’ but when Israelis die, they are ‘killed,’ murdered in cold blood,” she told CNN.

The 53-year-old queen has long supported the rights of the Palestinian people, but her talk with Amanpour had a particularly scathing tone that is unusual for royals.

She went so far as to condemn US President Joe Biden's public pronouncements regarding the Oct 7 attacks on Israel, even taking direct aim at CNN, and branded Israel's bombardment of Gaza "butchery at a mass scale."

King Abdullah II's wife further stated in the interview, “When the US President is told that he has evidence he has seen evidence of children beheaded, only to retract it because the IDF said that there's no proof of that.

“That is confirmation bias. Even at your network Christiane, the CNN website, at the beginning of the colonisation, reported a headline about Israeli children found butchered in an Israeli kibbutz.

"And when you read through the story, that’s hasn’t not been independently verified.

"Now, my question is...would you publish such a damning yet unverified claim made by a Palestinian,” she reportedly said.

Amanpour then stepped in, said “Queen Rania, I just need to stop you right there because the Israelis and our journalists have shown pictures have been down there.

Before shifting the topic, she said, "I'm not talking about beheadings; I'm talking about babies' bodies riddled with bullets."

The queen highlighted how the Arab world was responding to the airstrikes that have been hitting Gaza for the past few weeks, which have killed around 5,000 Palestinians, according to the health minister of the enclave.

She added that many people believed that the West was "complicit" in the widespread deaths of civilians.

“We are being told that it is wrong to kill a family, an entire family, at gunpoint, but it’s okay to shell them to death.... And it is just shocking to the Arab 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,” she added.

During the interview, Amanpour warned the queen that calling Israel a "apartheid" state would result in her receiving "a lot of criticism from Israel and its supporters."

In response, the royal said, "Let me just emphasise that apartheid is a designation that was given by Israeli and international human rights organizations, not by Arabs."

Queen Rania, who works hard to improve the lives of Jordanians by supporting efforts to create opportunities for their advancement without any fear, stated the statement pointed to Israeli occupation and the "dehumanisation" of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza through "daily indignities and human rights violations.

"This is a 75-year-old story, a story of overwhelming death and displacement to the Palestinian people.

“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," she reportedly said.