Dehumanisation is at the heart of atrocities in Gaza

We watch in horror as the population has been bombed, displaced, starved, denied medical aid, food, water or any of the basic necessities that are protected even in war.

These are the basics of humanity. How has it come to pass that Israel is able to disregard international law and threaten to commit war crimes – such as cutting off water – on the world stage without any palpable opposition?

How do political leaders across the world find it acceptable; to say these actions are simply “Israel’s right to defend itself”?

The answer is subtle but unfortunately all too familiar. The answer is the same way you convince the public you need to invade another country for weapons of mass destruction. A convincing mistruth; a wartime narrative repeated often enough.

Palestinians check the site of the al-Ahli explosion

The only way these atrocities can be justified and deemed “self-defence” is by the dehumanisation of the other side. If the civilian collateral damage of your opponent can be painted as sub-human, as savages, not worthy of being treated in line with internationally agreed human rights conventions or worth following international law on war, then the occupying military force has carte blanche.

This is what we are now witnessing.

The central claim was made right at the start of this most recent heartbreaking episode of the occupation of Palestine and Israel’s militaristic aggression, that of the “beheading of babies”.

The allegations took off when Nicole Zedeck, a reporter with Tel Aviv-based news channel i24, commented during a live newscast that she had spoken to an Israeli soldier claiming to have witnessed decapitated babies.

By any casual reading of the press around these claims, they all circle back to one individual source; to one journalist. The IDF itself denied confirmation on multiple occasions but still allowed the idea to float.

The die had been cast. The British press, international commentators, even President Biden went on to quote these allegations as fact: “I never really thought that I would see, have confirmed, pictures of terrorists beheading children.”

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This was said during a meeting with Jewish leaders at the White House, only for the White House to later issue a clarification when queried by The Washington Post. The clarification stated the president was simply recounting the media reports, not anything the White House had independently seen or verified itself.

Little needs said about spurious information on Twitter/X. It is a hotbed of misinformation and a dream for those who produce and proliferate misinformation for mischief as we in the independence movement know and know very well. What of those with military-funded interests and potential war crimes to justify?

The bombing of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital which alone killed at least 500 people, the threat to bomb any aid that might make its way to Gaza, the cutting off of electricity and water supplies which Keir Starmer defended as Israel’s right to defend itself only later to say he was “misinterpreted”.

Water is a basic human right and according to UN experts, who have released a report on this, cutting it off constitutes a war crime. This is bringing the sanitation, the fragile medical support and clean water supplies to a halt.

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To besiege and bomb an already trapped population – stuck between the sea, Israeli blockades and the Egyptian border – is unconscionable to anyone who still views the civilian population of Palestine – half of whom are children – as human. Still to be worthy of humane treatment even among the ghastly realities of war.

To be starved, left in the dark without sanitation and bombed even while arriving at the poorly resourced hospital isn’t “defence”. It isn’t even defence if you believe the oppressor can lay claim to a need of defence against its own occupied and oppressed population mass.

We must not forget that the facts of the history of this 75-year conflict are not contested – only ignored.

A ceasefire must come, aid must reach its destination and water must be allowed to flow, even in the limited way it did before this onslaught.

We are all praying for the children on both sides who have nothing to do with the actions of the adults involved, for the population besieged in response to the actions of a few. We pray for the hostages and their families and that in our lifetime an acceptable resolution can be found and in time, that those who abuse their power are brought to account for their actions.

At the time of writing, Israeli deaths total at least 1405, injured 5431. Gazan deaths at least 7326, with at least 18,967 injured.