Facing the Palestinian faces

While the charter of Hamas may claim to eradicate Israel 'in words', it is Palestine that is being eradicated 'in deeds' through regular culls named Cast Lead, Pillar of Defence and Protective Edge. The proof of the real eradication is in the grotesquely disproportionate fatalities.

The dehumanisation is central to Israel's arsenal, but is also central to Palestinian reality. Since electing the wrong government in 2006, and Hamas took control of Gaza, these Palestinians endured a siege that has rationed their water, food, medicines, electricity and sanitation.

For the Palestinians in Gaza, the difference between a ceasefire and a war was the difference between continuing to die slowly, or die quickly.

This noose needs to be loosened if the Palestinian voices are to be heard. The deprivation of these basic human rights of a besieged people is a protracted war crime.

The dehumanisation blindfolds us to two facts: all human life is absolutely equal, and these two 'sides' are absolutely unequal.

Any state claiming that their land 'belongs' to their religion, whether Israeli Jews or Hamas Sunnis, leans towards theocracy, not democracy. With or without Israel's Iron Dome defence missiles in Israel, the rockets from Gaza have murderous intentions and must be condemned.

I dread the day that our children's future children go on a school excursion to the Holocaust Museum and then to a Palestine Museum.

They will see the shrinking map of Palestine, before it completely disappeared off the face of the earth. They will see photos, artefacts, testimonials, videos and timelines. They will see how the indigenous people were labelled as Arabs, Muslims, Gazans, Hamas, terrorists and refugees, but rarely as Palestinians. They will see how one proud people (Palestinians) paid the price for the crimes committed against another proud people (Jews). They will see how both people were dehumanised.

And our grandchildren will say: but they should have been best friends.

And they will ask us how we let this happen to humans.