CHRISTMAS is cancelled. The Bethlehem municipality confirmed last month that all festivities have been scrapped ahead of December 25. 

“The reason is the general situation in Palestine; people are not really into any celebration, they are sad, angry and upset; our people in Gaza are being massacred in cold blood,” a spokesperson said.

I was in Bethlehem one Christmas Eve and phoned my mother — a good Catholic. She said: “How lovely dear.” I first had to explain that it was Orthodox Christmas Eve — January 5 or Twelfth Night — and the reality of Bethlehem today, rather than the Bethlehem of myth and religion. Walled in and walled off from Jerusalem, shops and hotels closed down — the only tourists were Americans bussed in to the “manger” and out by Israeli tourist companies with commentaries from Israeli guides.

The overwhelming majority of us in Britain have no idea what it is like to be living under military occupation. We’ve not been occupied since the French and Vikings. A young Palestinian woman on my course, having had huge problems leaving the West Bank to get here, revelled at how I can just get on a bus or take a train to London. No checkpoints, no walls, no IDF.

The Western pretend shock at the Dresden-style bombing of Gaza rings so hollow. It was, after all, us who invented the modern-day warfare tactic of mass bombing of civilians. It was also us who said, in the aftermath of the Hamas attack: “Go ahead, do you worst, whatever it takes.” Because we know so well, from Iraq to Afghanistan, how effective the use of overwhelming military firepower is against an indigenous population.

Leaving aside the fact that an occupying power does not have the formal, legal right to “self-defence” against the people it has already occupied, it is clear that, however many people Israel kills by way of revenge, it is not going to resolve the fundamental issue or overcome Palestinian resistance.

The fact is that Israel is built on stolen Palestinian land and there is no hope of a just, fair and lasting peace until there is Palestinian self-determination, an end to the occupation and the Palestinians are given their land back. So, what would peace look like and how do we get there from here?

Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer — what a trio — all mutter two-state solution with no explanation of how it will solve things or how it will be achieved. In the meantime, Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli ambassador to Britain say “two states — over your dead bodies” and that they will carry on the war on Gaza with or without international support. By its actions Israel is delegitimising itself by the day and becoming a rogue, outlaw state. 

Despite this “finger-in-the-air” approach by Israel, the world has still done nothing more than pass a resolution. The combined diplomatic power of the Western world has failed to get even the most basic levels of aid into Gaza.

Definitions of state vary, but all contain varying elements of “a permanent population; a defined territory; government; and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.” None of these currently apply to Palestine.

Palestinians are citizens of nowhere, millions are refugees. Israel has never recognised Palestine and refuses to define or limit its own borders. The officially occupied parts of Palestine — Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem — are not allowed to operate democratically. The occupation is governed under military law and run under the rule of the Israeli occupying force.

Israel is adamant there will never be a Palestinian state in any real shape or form — it says it wants to keep and control everything. Keep Jerusalem, keep the wall, keep the settlements, the water, the gas and the land — while maintaining security and military control from the river to the sea and beyond.  Peace must mean the reverse of this — the full and total decolonisation of Palestine.

It sounds like and is a mountain to climb, but we, the West, have the means to achieve it. Despite its claims to be a wonderful, thriving capitalist economy, Israel’s is a war and defence economy built with and on Western aid. Western money, Western arms, Western trade. Sanctions are the clear, obvious and only answer. More so than on South Africa, much more than on Russia, properly applied sanctions could be used to force Israel to start to comply with international law.

This should start with an arms embargo, no arms trade and an end to military aid that is going to be used to enforce the occupation. We have seen and know how these arms are going to be used — to kill Palestinians. But given that the two biggest “givers” of military support are the US and Britain, which have just voted against the world in support of no end to the ceasefire, how are we going to move this yet another big mountain?

In its most recent newsletter, the excellent Visualising Palestine quote Toni Morrison: “There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear.” Citing the largest wave of anti-colonial/anti-imperial political protests in decades, they call for a “tidal wave” of support for Palestine.

That is our new year task and resolution — to turn the massive public support and sympathy for Palestine into a veritable political tsunami that is going to shift Western politics from guilt-ridden uncritical support for Israel to one of justice for Palestine.

The marches have been amazing — week after week hundreds of thousands of protesters, a whole new generation of supporters. This needs to be turned into a movement — the biggest solidarity movement the modern world has seen. We need to get organised in our unions, churches, workplaces, pubs, universities and schools. We need to confront every politician at every level — do not count on our support if you are not supporting justice for Palestine.

Israel sees this an opportunity for an imaginary, ultimate victory — in fact it has created the seeds of its own defeat. No nation is an island, it cannot exist and ignore the world that feeds it, if that world says “enough is enough.” It is and has been far too much — it is time for action to end the killing, to end the occupation. It is time for action — time for sanctions. 

Let’s make 2024 the year when a free Palestine becomes closer to being a reality.