Hashem, a Gaza-born medical professional who obtained Ukrainian citizenship after nearly a decade living in the country, said the contrast in how Palestinians and Ukrainians are treated internationally has long been apparent.
“Travelling as a Ukrainian opens doors; travelling as a Palestinian closes them,” he said, describing the stark difference in freedom of movement, visa access and public sympathy attached to each of his identities.
“This is not a competition of suffering, but a question of principle. If human rights are truly universal, they cannot depend on nationality or passport,” said Hashem, who requested Al Jazeera withholds his surname.
Aaisha Aroggi, a 25-year-old student from Gaza City, was displaced 10 times in the first months of Israel’s war. She later made it to Egypt via the Rafah crossing, then to Ukraine, where she was granted residency because her brother was living and working in Kyiv.
Compared with the brutal conditions in Gaza, Kyiv felt like a safe haven at first, she said. But now, with constant Russian attacks on infrastructure, she feels she has gone from one place of destruction to another.
“War has the same face everywhere,” she said
I’m really hoping on mindsets changing, though very difficult given the media’s manufacturing of consent and empathy for some conflicts but not others.
I remember at the onset of the Russian invasion how one reporter (among many others) was openly racist in comparing Ukrainians to Middle Easterners
CBS News senior foreign correspondent Charlie D’Agata stated last week that Ukraine “isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European – I have to choose those words carefully, too – city, one where you wouldn’t expect that, or hope that it’s going to happen”.
This article has more examples:
Is “CBS News senior foreign correspondent Charlie D’Agata,” a Ukrainian citizen? If not, then what does that have to do with the article, apart from the fact that he mentions Ukrainians on his way to being racist?
Despite these gradual changes, Hashem said, he still sees double standards, “not out of anger toward Ukrainians, but because of the system that decides whose suffering matters more”.
Relevant because media manufactures consent.
“In Ukraine, when I speak about Palestine, reactions vary. Some people listen and try to understand; others struggle to accept comparisons, often because they have been told for years that the situations are not comparable,” he said.
Relevant because, again, media, but also could be several factors ranging from politics, to misunderstanding/ignorance, to unconscious racism.
I definitely like the conclusion
Experiencing reduced support does not erase the difference in treatment, but it may help some people see that solidarity based on principles – not politics – is the only solidarity that truly lasts
I’m asking about why you’re talking about the US media as opposed to the Ukrainian media, which would actually be relevant.
What? A person in Ukraine is literally sharing how local perception has changed, even in the media. That the media in Ukraine was pro-israel (and therefore also had the same attitude).
Maybe read both the article and my comment again.
You’re just grandstanding about the US on an unrelated article, though
It’s clear you didn’t read the article I shared. Good-bye.