International Community Applies Double Standards to Palestine: Egypt’s Al-Azhar

Egypt’s Al-Azhar urged the international community to stop applying double standards to the Israel-Palestine conflict and to consider the history of the conflict, which is regarded the “longest occupation in modern history”.

“This occupation is a disgrace to humanity and the international community only knows double standards when it is related to the Palestinian issue,” Al-Azhar said in a statement on Saturday, 7 October.

The statement added that it extends its support to the Palestinian people, affirming that every occupation will disappear, whether sooner or later. Al-Azhar also offered its sincere condolences to the families of Palestinians who were killed or injured after Israeli airstrikes.

Israeli airstrikes on Gaza killed at least 232 Palestinians and injured over 1,600, according to Gaza health officials. This was in response to an unprecedented attack by the militant group Hamas.

Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel, crossing the Gaza-Israel border and entering several southern Israeli towns while launching rockets from Gaza. The Israeli rescue service reported that over 250 Israelis were killed and over 1,400 were injured.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel is at war, not simply engaged in an operation or round of fighting.

Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Israel Katz announced that Israel will cut off power to the Gaza Strip due to the ongoing fighting.

“I signed the order instructing the electric company to stop supplying electricity to the Gaza Strip. What was will not be,” Katz posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The international community’s double standards towards the Palestinian issue has been spoken about by previous politicians and activists. Clare Short, former International Development Secretary in the UK, wrote a letter in the Financial Times stating, “clearly Vladimir Putin’s invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory is wrong, violent and cruel. But so is Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.”