The other story of Bethlehem

Christian clergy will commemorate the birth in the Palestinian town of Bethlehem of their saviour as the son of God who had no place to lay his head and was, accordingly, born in a manger.

In Palestine today, lack of shelter remains a major problem for the people of Gaza, many of whom have been condemned to live in tents for the past two years.

Monday will mark the second anniversary of Israel's unjustified military assault on the coastal enclave, when its armed forces wiped out over 1,400 Palestinians in just over three weeks.

The attack was designed to destroy social infrastructure to make people's lives unbearable as a way of turning the Palestinian people against Hamas, which they had backed in free and democratic elections.

Israel has tightened the blockade against Gaza, despite international condemnation of this collective punishment of civilians, which is classified by the Geneva conventions as a war crime.

The occupying power, which presses ahead with its illegal colonisation of the West Bank, refuses to allow concrete or other building supplies into Gaza, preventing both the Palestinians themselves and the United Nations from beginning vital reconstruction.

Global opinion has been outraged by the inhuman treatment of the people of Gaza, prompting a number of humanitarian initiatives to breach the blockade.

Israel's obstinate determination to hold its line and to deter further blockade-challenging efforts was revealed by the murderous assault in May by special forces on the Mavi Marmara aid ship, which killed 10 Turkish aid workers.

Despite the complicity of the international media in giving Israel a head start to offer its slant on events on the Mavi Marmara, a tsunami of global public opinion put Tel Aviv on the back foot.

It promised to ease the blockade, but it continues to starve the people of Gaza - "putting them on a diet," as one Israeli official cynically put it.

Only half the food necessary to feed the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza is let through, while the sole export allowed out is strawberries.

The UN estimates that Gaza requires 670,000 lorryloads of construction materials to rebuild the homes, shops and factories destroyed by Israel's bombs and rockets left in ruins, but only an average of 715 a month have been let in since Israel announced that its blockade would be eased.

A coalition of 22 humanitarian organisations produced a report last month revealing that the supposed easing had barely dented the blockade.

The situation is likely to worsen in light of Israel's refusal to consider a halt to its West Bank colonisation programme and its perennial predisposition to resort to pre-emptive military assaults.

Negotiations are off the agenda currently because of Israel's attitude and because the US supposed mediator is in Tel Aviv's pocket.

As with apartheid South Africa previously, apartheid Israel's arrogance must be met with international criticism in the shape of the boycott, divestment, sanctions movement.

In common with that minority of white South Africans who identified with the cause of liberation, progressive Israelis will recognise the need for sanctions against their state.

They will understand that until there is justice for the Palestinians there can be no lasting peace and that pressure is required to achieve it.