Queen Rania calls on world’s youth

Queen Rania of Jordan has called on the world’s youth to challenge double standards and fight against global injustices.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the One Young World Summit in Cape Town, South Africa, the Queen said, “Anger at injustice is not weakness; it’s proof you’re paying attention. Caring deeply is not the opposite of thinking clearly. Standing up for each other isn’t sentimentality; it’s how we pay our dues.”

“Our country was recently shaken by a horrific, unprecedented attack on a church. This violence is alien to Jordan, and an affront to everything we stand for. The families of those we lost bear the deepest pain, but their heartbreak is shared by an entire nation.”

Queen Rania addressed an audience of more than 2,200 youth leaders from over 190 countries.

She added, “In 1997, Madiba said that South Africa’s freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians. Yet with Palestine, dismissal has reached a whole new level.

“The duty to protect civilians, to let food, water, and medicine through. The prohibition on forcible transfer, on collective punishment. All are treated as optional. It breaks my heart to remember that, a year ago, thousands of Palestinians took to Gaza’s shattered streets to celebrate what they believed was the end to their nightmare – only to discover, as more than 100 NGOs recently put it, that the ceasefire exists in name only.

“The law isn’t a matter of opinion; it’s not moved by feelings. And it protects everyone equally, Palestinians and Israelis, Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Those are the obligations every nation has signed up for. Governments that see the evidence and look away are making a choice. It is a cop-out dressed up as neutrality. What is that, if not racism – to expect Palestinians to settle for less freedom and less dignity, then call them unreasonable for demanding more? None of us should accept that for them. We owe each other more than that.”