As the world watches Russian tanks roll into Ukraine, the millions of refugees who fled to neighboring countries, and the massive encouragement the popular resistance of Ukrainians is getting, thousands of miles away Palestinians wonder loudly why their cause did not attract the same positive and enormous reaction from Western governments and coverage from media outlets.
Soon after the Russian invasion began, images started to emerge of Ukrainian civilians preparing Molotov cocktails and arming themselves to resist the Russian military, with seemingly almost limitless military, financial and political backing from Western governments, and unprecedented praise from journalists and media outlets.
Drawing on the decisive response from Washington, London, Berlin, Paris, and Brussels against Moscow, Palestinians question why the same treatment was not applied to them.
Political analyst Nour Odeh said that the EU and US’s double standard is “jaw-dropping.”
“I think the most striking aspect of the hypocrisy of it all is hearing state representatives talking about the illegality of the acquisition of territory by force, talking about upholding international law, talking about accountability, when these same representatives refuse to apply that standard of international law to Israeli actions regarding occupied Jerusalem, the West Bank, and illegal settlements,” he said.
Odeh, a former spokeswoman for the Palestinian Authority, says while Western media have framed the actions of Ukrainians defending their homeland and resisting occupation forces as legitimate, the Palestinians − who are internationally recognized as a people under occupation − do not receive the same treatment from these same governments and media outlets.
Israel describes Palestinians who resist the occupation forces using the same methods and tools as “terrorists,” and Palestinians say even throwing rocks at Israeli tanks has become forbidden.
Palestinians laud Ukrainians’ efforts to defend their country and resist a Russian occupation but call for the international community to apply the pressure it is exerting to expel Russian forces out of Ukraine on Israel, she said.
“The criticism is warranted; we’ve seen enough evidence to see that objectivity is completely discarded,” Odeh said.
“As a Palestinian, it shocks me. I can see reports on mainstream media outlets where the reporter expresses personal views, awe, and [praise for] Ukrainians preparing Molotov cocktails,” she said. “The same reporter would be talking of Molotov cocktails in the hands of Palestinians as terroristic.”
Palestinians lament what they describe as the West’s hypocrisy toward their efforts to resist Israeli occupation. For years they called out Western countries, accusing them of paying lip service to the Palestinian cause and providing absolute support for Israel.
Ali Jarbawi, a professor of political science at Birzeit University, said that it is a “double standard in the clearest way.
“This hypocrisy is governed by interests, on the basis of which political and international relations are built,” he said.
Furthermore, Jarbawi stressed that the US and Europe do not see Ukrainians as different from them. “They consider Ukraine as part of the Western group, as opposed to Palestine being the ‘other,’ which it deems different − and they consider Israel also as part of the Western group.”
Odeh said all these further cement the belief that there are two sets of laws.
“I think ultimately what this crisis has done is reveal and expose the fact that powerful countries treat international law as a tool to serve their political goals and interests, and they are willing to bend the law − and to even undermine it − in order to protect an ally like Israel,” Odeh said.
She chastised the way Israeli media have been covering the war, calling it “bizarre” and “schizophrenic.”
“They don’t see the occupation and they don’t see the Palestinians, and they identify themselves as European, Western, and ‘civilized,’ belonging to that club,” Odeh said.
Palestinians say even sports is being used to show support for Ukraine when its flag has been widely flown at recent soccer matches with the approval of soccer authorities. However, UEFA fined the Scottish Premier League team Celtic after its fans flew Palestinian flags at international games, saying that they were political symbols.
Irish lawmaker Richard Boyd Barrett slammed his government for “double standards” for imposing sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, but not taking similar measures against Israel.
Barrett sits in the Irish parliament for the left-wing People Before Profit party.
“You’re happy to correctly use the most strong and robust language to describe the crimes against humanity of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin but you will not use the same strength of language when it comes to describing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians,” he told parliament.
The story is written by Mohammad Al-Kassim and reprinted with permission from the Media Line