JRCS urges global action, accountability amidst Gaza war’s double standards

AMMAN — The ongoing war on Gaza has demonstrated the urgency to re-humanise people and the need to find means to safeguard humanity’s common future that is currently riddled with double standards, Mohamed Hadid, president of the Jordan Red Crescent Society (JRCS), said on Saturday.

Addressing a workshop organised by the JRCS titled "International Humanitarian Law Amidst Current Conditions in Gaza", Hadid called on the signatories to the Geneva Conventions to hold any state that violates international humanitarian law accountable.

“Now our role is not limited to providing humanitarian assistance... we seek to give a voice to victims of war,” Hadid said.

Briefing the audience on a recap of international humanitarian law rules governing war and armed conflicts, Hadid pointed out that the provision of humanitarian assistance should be based on impartiality and respect for human dignity.

Emphasising the readiness of the Jordanian Red Crescent hospital to receive and treat the wounded from Gaza, he called for international pressure to facilitate the evacuation of the injured for treatment in neighbouring countries. He stressed that aid alone is insufficient to resolve the situation and called for a political solution to address the ongoing crisis.

Hadid explained that double standards over the Gaza war are a serious setback amid a lack of criticism and condemnation of Israel’s atrocities, demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

“The most basic humanitarian principles are not being applied either in the besieged strip or in the West Bank,” he noted.

The current war has, unsurprisingly, highlighted the imbalance of power between Israel and the people living under blockade, Hadid added.

Hadid said that war should be viewed through the lens of people’s common humanity; such a notion guarantees that no person is treated as more worthy than another.

A number of slogans such as “We Are not Leaving Anyone Behind” have been launched by humanitarian organisations, however, their voices that called for abiding by principles of humanity remained “faint and almost inaudible”, Hadid noted.

He reiterated that “humanity is dying… and the international humanitarian law should be revived in order to preserve a measure of humanity amidst war and armed conflicts”.