Montreal - Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah urged the world’s youth to take heed of the dangerous precedent being set by Israel’s actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which she warned had "great implications" for the future they stand to inherit.
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"This war has done more than set the Gaza Strip back generations," Her Majesty said on Saturday evening. "It is also dragging the rest of the world back to a level of lawlessness best left to the archives of history."
"Worse yet, by sanctioning it – by continuing to provide military, economic, and diplomatic cover to Israel – many global powers are sending a chilling message about our future: that this is the shape of wars to come," she added.
Her Majesty made her remarks in her keynote address at the annual One Young World Summit, hosted this year in Montreal. Queen Rania previously spoke at the youth organization’s 2023 summit, which was held in Belfast just five days before the October 7th attacks and the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Reflecting on the prior year’s summit, Her Majesty explained that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict had already been weighing heavily on her mind.
"I shared with you my concerns that, 57 years into an illegal Israeli occupation, the world had lost interest in the fate of the Palestinian people – that it was taking no action to stop escalating attacks on Palestinian land, rights, and identity," she stated.
"I said then, ‘Hope is a choice.’ And I dared to believe better choices were on the horizon," the Queen recalled.
However, she noted that "hope has become a more difficult choice to make" in light of the past year’s violence.
"International humanitarian law prohibits collective punishment – but, in Gaza, collective punishment is the strategy," Her Majesty said. "A siege is scarcity by design: deprive every man, woman, and child of everything needed to sustain life, in the hope that famine, disease, and demoralization will lead to defeat."
She relayed her horror at the mass destruction and displacement in Gaza, where two-thirds of all buildings have been damaged or destroyed, and nine out of ten people have been displaced at least once.
"Imagine, nearly 2 million people – more than the population of the city of Montreal – fleeing for their lives with little more than the clothes on their backs and their traumatized children in their arms," the Queen urged. "Imagine families confined to overflowing tent cities, with 24,000 people to every square kilometer, and more than 4,000 to a toilet."
"Gaza has long-been described as an open-air prison. Today, it is a suffocating cell," she said. "Such suffering shouldn’t exist in this day and age; yet, scenes of mass exodus, starvation, and disease are being transplanted out of history books and onto our Instagram feeds."
Elaborating on her earlier assertion that "hope is a choice," Her Majesty stressed that a people’s capacity to hope hinges on their freedom to choose. "Yet, under Israeli occupation, Palestinians’ capacity for choice has been stripped to the bone," she said.
Queen Rania explained that Israel exerts control over nearly every aspect of Palestinian life, in the West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip. She also described how 17 years of military blockade, and 12 months of near-total siege, have depleted the people of Gaza of their resources, stamina, and autonomy.
"When I look at Gaza today, every choice I see is counterfeit: a quick death by bombs and bullets, or a slow one from hunger and disease. No possibilities – only inevitabilities. These are not choices at all," she said.
She went on to emphasize that hope, while essential, is not enough.
"The persecuted and downtrodden don’t need a change in mindset. They need a change in circumstances and need it now," Her Majesty said.
"Over the months, Palestinians in Gaza have been subjected to subhuman conditions Yet, at the very moment when swift action is most needed, our global community has dragged its feet," she stated. "Beyond just hope, it is time for impatience. We need to demand something different."
Calling for a genuine, just peace, "built on universal respect for dignity, decency, and self-determination," Queen Rania explained that this can only be achieved by addressing Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, which she described as the root of the conflict.
"We cannot permit international law, legally binding Security Council resolutions, and the findings of world courts to be disregarded in favor of political expediency," she said.
Speaking directly to the audience – which included youth representatives of over 190 countries and more than 250 organizations – the Queen encouraged the world’s youth to use their choices to advocate on behalf of those denied similar freedoms. She also commended students, activists, and youth leaders on every continent, adding that many have adopted the Palestinian cause as their own.
"Despite strong headwinds, they have chosen to take a stand for the choice-less. And that decision, like every decision, has slightly altered our world’s path," she said. "The shift may yet be imperceptible. But, inch by inch, a course correction toward justice is possible. In fact, it is already underway."
She encouraged the world’s youth to learn about the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and try to understand the reality of Palestinians’ lives under occupation.
"Question the established narrative, draw your own, more nuanced conclusions, and help nudge the world in the right direction," she said.
"Peace is not a matter of chance. Peace, like hope, is a matter of choice – one our world has failed to make for far too long," the Queen stated. "It is time to choose another way. And your generation can help pave it."
One Young World is a global platform that identifies, connects, and promotes young leaders from around the world, hosting an annual summit that convenes in a different city each year. Considered one of the world’s largest youth leadership summits, the event’s participants are invited to deliver speeches and participate in workshops and networking opportunities, as well as receive counselling by influential figures attending the summit.
This year’s three-day summit in Montreal featured the participation of a number of distinguished global figures, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, political activist Sir Bob Geldof, human rights activist Tawakkol Karman, Former UN Under-Secretary-General Michael Moller, and Chief Adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus.
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