Published: 25 March 2022
Last updated: 4 March 2024
DOV WAXMAN: Palestinians may feel insulted by the unified response to Russia. But there are three major differences between Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the occupation
THE OUTPOURING OF popular support in the West for Ukraine, and the international community’s almost unanimous denunciations of Russia’s invasion, together with an avalanche of sanctions and boycotts imposed on Russia, have been greeted with a quizzical, if not cynical, response by many Palestinians and their supporters.
They complain about what they see as the blatant double standards in the determined and forceful Western response to Russia, compared to the response, or lack thereof, to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
Some commentators claim that the difference in these responses simply boils down to racism - Ukrainians elicit Western sympathy, Palestinians don’t. In the words of Yousef Munayyer, a non-resident fellow at the Arab Centre in Washington, DC:
"It seems the main reason Westerners were quick to jump to defend the human rights of Ukrainians while they’ve ignored the human rights of Palestinians and so many others is that they see some of us as less human than others."
The frustration and insult many Palestinians might feel as they witness the West’s unified opposition to Russia compared with its ongoing support for Israel is understandable.
But the claim that they demonstrate a double standard rests on a facile analogy and a false equivalence. While there are some superficial similarities, there are three significant differences between the war in Ukraine and the occupation of Palestinian territories.
First, the war in Ukraine is the result of an unprovoked act of aggression by one state (Russia) against its neighbour (Ukraine), which posed no real threat to Russia.
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Photo: Protest near the Russian Embassy in Rome (AP/Alessandra Tarantino)
