Anya Schiffrin

Queen Rania of Jordan gave remarks on Gaza, the West Bank, and the Palestinian people earlier today at the Cernobbio Forum in Italy. In a passionate speech, Queen Rania quoted everyone from Washington Post columnist @KarenAttiah to the late Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Queen Rania, who is Palestinian, continues to be the most outspoken member of the Royal Family of Jordan. “Would any Western population be expected to tolerate decades of occupation, oppression, and violence? Yet in Palestine, this injustice has been rationalized and allowed to go on in full view of the global community. Is the world saying that Israel's security is more important than anyone else's and therefore nothing is off-limits in its pursuit? That no level of Palestinian suffering is too high a price to pay? This devaluation of life must be called out for what it is: anti-Palestinian racism….. Yet, what is the Global South supposed to think when they see the West stand up for the people of Ukraine while leaving innocent civilians in Gaza to unprecedented collective punishment? What are they to think when global leaders express outrage at airstrikes on foreign humanitarian workers, but not on the desperate Palestinians those same aid workers are trying to support? What are they to think when the ICJ's advisory opinion that Israel's occupation is illegal is ignored by some and dismissed by others? Even as Gaza's displaced children are being bombed, and teens are killed by Israeli bullets to the head, what conclusions are people to draw about who matters, who doesn't, and why? More than hypocritical, the double standard is dehumanizing. It is cruel. And if it isn't racist, I don't know what is..” (Video of her full remarks in next tweet)