Queen Rania of Jordan has given an impassioned interview on the Israel-Gaza war, saying that the conflict did not begin on 7 October with the Hamas terrorist attack, but that “this is a 75-year-old story, a story of overwhelming death and displacement to the Palestinian people”.
Rania, who was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents, spoke with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour from her offices in Amman.
“For many Palestinians on the other side of the separation wall and the barbed wire, war has never left,” she said.
The queen, who shares four children with her husband King Abdullah II, said: “We’ve seen Palestinian mothers who have had 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. And for them to have to go through this, it’s just unbelievable.”
Rania, 53, explained that the people of Jordan are united in “grief, pain, and shock” in response to the staggering civilian casualties and that her country condemns the killing of any civilian.
“6,000 civilians killed so far, 2,400 children – how is that self-defence?” she said. “We are seeing butchery at a mass scale using precision weapons.
“For the past two weeks, we have seen the indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza: entire families wiped out, residential neighbourhoods flattened to the ground, the targeting of hospitals, schools, churches, mosques, medical workers, journalists, UN aid workers – how is that self defence?”
Reinforcing that military involvement is not the solution and calling for a free Palestine, she said: “There can never be a resolution except around the negotiating table. And there’s only one path to this: a free, sovereign, and independent Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with the state of Israel.”
The royal called out the West’s “double standards” and went on to say that many in the region view the Western world as being complicit in the war by supporting Israel.
“The context of a nuclear-armed regional superpower that occupies, oppresses, and commits daily documented crimes against Palestinians is missing from the narrative,” she said.
A few days after the Hamas terror attack, Rania shared a series of heartbreaking videos and images on her Instagram account of people suffering from the bombardment in Gaza, including clips of young girls crying and families saying goodbye to their loved ones.
In a simple statement that spoke volumes, the queen wrote: “It isn’t self-defense if you are an occupying force…”
