‘Generation of Orphans’ – King Abdullah Talks about Israel’s Dehumanization in Gaza
Jordan’s King Abdullah has decried Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, stating that it has resulted in “an entire generation of orphans.”
Speaking at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda on Monday, Abdullah asked “How many times have we said never again, only to find ourselves facing another conflict rooted in hatred and dehumanization?”
He said “almost 30 thousand Gazans” have been killed or unaccounted for over the past three months, adding that “the overwhelming majority, nearly 70 percent, are women and children.”
“More children have died in Gaza than in all other conflicts around the world this past year,” Abdullah stressed.
“Of those who have survived, many have lost one or both parents—an entire generation of orphans,” he said.
He further asked: “How can indiscriminate aggression and shelling bring peace? How can they guarantee security, when they build on hatred?”
Lauding the Rwandan story as “a beacon for us all”, Abdullah said that “without a just peace, on the basis of the two-state solution, the world will continue to pay a heavy price for failing to resolve this conflict.”
“And we will never know true peace and stability in the Middle East,” he added.
Abdullah said the memorial for the 1994 Rwanda genocide “… teaches the world that memory matters, that we must first acknowledge the brutality before we can work towards peace…”
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 23,210 Palestinians have been killed, and 59,167 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7. Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.