Contributed by Ben Wilson

Israel keeps on attacking civilian soft targets in the Gaza Strip. The justification usually used is that strikes are against Hamas military installations. This is a lie. They are reactions against civilian protests over ongoing occupation and the continuing ejection of Palestinians from their homes by Israeli state backed settlers.

Proof of who is being attacked is in who the casualties are. These are overwhelmingly civilians, and often children. They are the targets. Other targets are residential buildings, businesses, and infrastructure, like water supply and electricity for civilian use. Attacks of this sort can’t be passed off as military targets and make it clear that the Israeli government sees the Palestinian population as the enemy.

To put it into effect, Palestinians have been dehumanised. Sadly, racism has been forged as the tool, in the name of defending Jews, to copy the example of the German Nazis during the Hitler era. Setting the Palestinians as the enemy and trying to wipe them out as a people, is little different as sit was to accuse Jews of behind the problems faced by Germany.

Under this ideology, smacking of an attitude of racial superiority, Palestinians can be mistreated and murdered without a pang of conscience.

When Young Palestinians approach a fence locking them in their gigantic prison, it is alright to aim to shoot to kill. Sometimes they throw stones, it is met with bullets. If there is a definition of disproportionate use of force, this is it.

Photo by Abdel Kareem Hana/AP: Medics attend child seriously injured by Israeli bullets

The latest incursion last weekend was said by the Israeli government to have been a response to a demonstration at the perimeter fence and the injuring of a border police officer. There is no mention of the fact that 24 Palestinians were  injured by gunshot. They threw stones. In which direction was the real violence directed?

But never let the truth get in the way of a good story, especially when it can be used as a cover to blow up a few more building, and strike blows against the economy and wellbeing of the whole Palestinian population in Gaza. This of course, has been sold as targeting Hamas weapons sites.

Key targets hit by missiles from air strikes were buildings occupied by homes and small businesses.

A hole remains after a missile hit a residential building in Gaza

The protest near the fence was about the strict blockade that is denying basic needs like health, clean water, medicines, and more to the residents of Gaza. Most movement in and out of the territory is blocked. Movement within Gaza is also restricted. Many are prevented from going to work. Farmers are often denied access to their land to grow food. Israel’s occupation has turned Gaza into little more than a concentration camp, devoid of basic rights and suffering from imposed  poverty.

But these abuses can be ignored when the victims have been dehumanised, and the world’s leaders sit by and do nothing. Isn’t this another repetition of history?

The Palestinians have made it clear they will not submit and will continue fighting for their rights for as long as it takes.

The systematic elimination of their nation is  crime against humanity, and the world has a responsibility to point out the perpetrators and put a stop to it. Just like the world had a responsibility to put a stop to the implementation of the Final Solution on the Jewish population. Will the world fail again, or will genuine defenders of  human rights step up to the mark, support the Palestinians in winning their liberation, and therefore make all the difference?