Queen Rania of Jordan accused the West of having "a glaring double standard" regarding the war in Israel. The monarch, who is of Palestinian descent, even said during an interview with Christiane Amanpour that "to many in our region" the West was "complicit" with "genocide." "Many in the Arab world are looking at the West world at not just tolerating this but as aiding and abetting it."
She also assured that Jordan and Muslims condemn the death of any civilian, and that the conflict did not begin on Oct. 7: "This is a 75 year old story, a story of overwhelming death and displacement to the Palestinian people, the story of an occupation under an apartheid regime."
He also added that there was now a "hyper fixation" with Hamas, but that the problem precedes the terrorist group.
We are seeing butchery at a mass scale... How is that self-defense? Why is it that whenever Israel commits these atrocities it comes under the banner of self defense, but when there's violence under Palestinians it is immediately called terrorism? Is the word terrorism just reserved for Muslims and Arabs?
In a world exclusive, @QueenRania of Jordan spoke with me about the ongoing bombing of Gaza, civilian deaths, the massacres of October 7, and what she calls “a glaring double standard” in the west’s reaction to all this. Watch our full conversation. pic.twitter.com/68QUO3Vez9
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) October 24, 2023
Denying the Oct. 7 massacre
The Jordanian queen also took aim directly at President Biden. She accused him of having "confirmation bias" in favor of Israel, because he claimed that he saw evidence of decapitated babies, but then the White House retracted his statements.
For the same reason, she criticized CNN. She accused the outlet of publishing information that babies had been murdered in a kibbutz, to which Amanpour responded that there was plenty of evidence of Hamas' atrocities against babies.
Jordan insists it will not host refugees
Rania defended her husband King Abdullah's refusal to accept Palestinian refugees. "That is a red line, because I think that is the plan by certain of the usual suspects to try and create de facto issues on the ground. No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt," said the king during a trip to Germany.
The queen assured that the majority of Gaza residents are already refugees and that they do not believe they should face the dilemma of choosing between "expulsion or genocide."
