Israel-Hamas war: Jordan Queen slams West's 'glaring double standard'

Jordan’s Queen Rania has lashed out at the “glaring double standard” of the Western mainstream media in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, for failing to condemn civilian deaths in Tel Aviv’s bombardment of Gaza as the conflict threatens to destabilise relations between the United States and Arab leaders, CNN reported.

“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,” Queen Rania said on Amanpour & Co, in a video interview from the Jordanian capital, Amman.

The Jordanian royal said that when “October 7 happened” the world “immediately and unequivocally” supported Israel and its right to defend itself but in the last couple of weeks, “we’re seeing silence in the world.”

The 53-year-old queen who has for long been a vocal advocate for the rights of Palestinian people said that it was “for the first time in modern history that there is such human suffering and the world is not even calling for a ceasefire.”

Queen Rania said there was a feeling that the Western world is “complicit” in the mass death of civilians.

“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,” Queen Rania told CNN. “It is just shocking to the Arab world,” she said.

Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel on October 7 from the Gaza strip in Palestine, and Israel responded with strikes against Gaza. According to the latest figures shared by the United Nations, the death toll is said to have surpassed 5,000 in Gaza and reached 1,400 in Israel

Speaking in the UN Security Council on Tuesday, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, saying that “humanitarian pauses” should be considered, but notably avoided the phrase “ceasefire,” the CNN reported.

The US, a permanent member of the UNSC had last week vetoed a Brazil-led Security Council proposal for a humanitarian pause in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war to allow for aid into Gaza. It criticized the draft resolution for failing to mention Israel’s right to self-defence. The United Kingdom also refused to endorse the resolution. An earlier Russian ceasefire similarly failed, CNN reported.

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 just as much as any other mother in the world,” Queen Rania told the interviewer.