The world must defy double standards in dealing with the Palestinians

The Palestinian activist, Mona Nabil Al-Kurd, said that she was expelled from the special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which was held virtually a few days ago after she refused the Israeli delegate calling the Palestinians “terrorist”..

Al-Kurd stated that she was among a group of speakers hosted by the UN Human Rights Council to talk about the recent situation in Palestine and to shed light on the crimes of the occupation, but according to what she published on her social media accounts, she was surprised by the presence of a representative of Netanyahu at the session, who spoke right after Al-Kurd and she referred to the Palestinians as terrorists and tried to whitewash the image of the occupation. Her words prompted Mona to write a comment through the Zoom application, which hosted the session, in which she sent a message to the entire council saying “I want to tell the Prime Minister of Israel that you are the terrorists… You are the ones who attack and bomb civilians… You are the ones who are attacking our land in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan and stealing it from us. Stop playing the victim.”

An official at the General Secretariat of the Human Rights Council responded to Mona’s comment saying that “Such comments are unacceptable in the session and that her message must be erased before she gets kicked out of the session.”, only for Al-Kurd to be kicked out of the session a few minutes later.

The UN session was discussing Israel’s crimes in the Gaza Strip and the entire occupied Palestinian territories, such as killings, violence, apartheid, and racism. Despite this, a form of racism was practiced against the Palestinian activist Mona Al-Kurd in favor of Israel.
To allow the Israeli delegate to describe the Palestinians as terrorists and to accuse them of killing Israeli civilians, and not to allow Al-Kurd to respond is a clear bias, with undesirable consequences.

The actions against Mona Al-Kurd are arbitrary. The two of them should have been expelled if such comments were really not allowed in this meeting, but this ongoing racism is only harming humanity if the countries of the world do not take a clear position on the ‘double standards when it comes to human rights and peoples.

Mona Al-Kurd, a Palestinian activist from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem, her family is among seven families threatened with forced displacement at any moment from their homes and handing them over to the occupying settlers by force, in a similar scene of the 1948 Nakba, but in an uglier and crueler form.

Mona Al-Kurd has the right to defend her family, her homeland, her people, her right not to allow anyone to distort their image and falsify the truth, and it is her right first and foremost to be treated equally, and to stop the racism that the people of Palestine have suffered for more than 73 years by the brutal occupation that was allowed by the international silence and double standards.

The whole world must unite to put an end to the brutal crimes of the occupation, to stop the attempts of the occupying entity to recruit countries, bodies, and officials who make decisions, as such alliances have had a bad impact on all humanity for decades.

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