Chicago – September 26, 2024
This war has been unprecedented in its scale and brutality. Gaza, which is a third of the size of New York, has been hit with more explosives than, than Dresden, Hamburg and London throughout — combined — throughout World War II. So we have the highest death rates of any conflict this century. And 70% of those killed are women and children. Gaza is breaking all sorts of records in all the worst ways.
The highest rate of starvation, we have the highest cohort of child amputees, the highest level of civilian destruction, infrastructure destruction. Two or three buildings have been destroyed in most schools and hospitals, every single university. We have in this war, there have been more children, journalists, aid workers and medical personnel killed than any other war. So this is not a defensive war or a normal kind of war.
Every country has a right to defend itself. But what we’re seeing here is truly an indiscriminate killing spree that’s taking place. And instead — we are coming close to the first anniversary of Oct. 7, and we’ve said from Day One the killing of civilians is wrong. But the response to Oct. 7 is not justifiable. What we’re seeing today is a breaking of international law. And we are setting a new precedent in our world.
And so it sometimes feels like the world is operating from two different playbooks. Israeli pain is validated, whereas Palestinian pain is normalized, even justified. It sometimes seems that Israel is the exception to every rule that governs our world, and Palestinians are the exception to universal human rights.
ABC NEWS: And so what is the way forward? Obviously, you support a two-state solution, but in the meantime, what happens to the Palestinian people? What do they do? I mean, even if the cease-fire were over today, they’re living in cities that need to be rebuilt entirely.
RANIA: I think the No. 1 step now is to try to get an immediate cease-fire. And the reason that, why we’re not reaching that is because clearly the prime minister of Israel has been buying time. You know, every time the two sides are close to an agreement, he throws in a new set of conditions or last-minute obstacles.
So we need to stop the fighting immediately, and that will de-escalate the Lebanon front, every other front. And then the world community really needs to address the cause of this issue. And in the past, peace talks have failed because we used the same equation. You know, there were never any costs or consequences placed to disincentivize the occupation. So Israel just felt emboldened to build more settlements, to grab more land. There was never any effort to uphold international law.
So I feel if we need to approach the peace process, we need to have a set of parameters or foundations that we can all agree on. And these can be the starting point. Otherwise, we’re just, peace will remain elusive, only to reach another dead and deadly end.
So, for example, the starting point should be upholding the international law without exceptions. There can be negotiations and compromises, as is the case with any peace deal. But the departure point, the floor that needs to be set, should be international law.
Second, human rights are universal. They don’t need to be negotiated or earned. Both Palestinians and Israelis have the right to peace and security and self-determination, regardless of which side is more powerful.
Third, security is not a zero-sum game. For the longest time, Israelis have been trying to safeguard their own security by denying Palestinians the same. Neither side’s insecurity serves the other. It just reinforces the cycle of retaliation and and repression. The only way out of that is for both sides to have peace.
And, you know, for accountability, there can never be justice without accountability. When the nation does something wrong, it needs to be faced with repercussions, not exceptions.
And lastly, we cannot be held hostage to the voices on the extreme, that are, voices that are applauding starvation and displacement, that encourage collective punishment, that defend the indefensible, that justify the unjustifiable. We cannot be led by those forces.
