“The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger,” said Dov Weisglass, Ariel Sharon’s closest advisor. After 41 years of military occupation, Israel is slowly choking Gaza, a desolate remnant of the former Mandate of Palestine. It is bringing a civilian population to the brink of starvation, a planned humanitarian catastrophe.

For many years, Israel has controlled Palestinians’ access to clean water by imposing quotas. Occasionally it turns off the tap altogether, to punish Gazans for the actions of a rogue few. UNICEF reports “most Palestinian children live with far less than the recommended daily minimum amount of 20 litres of clean water.” After June 2006, when the Israeli Air Force bombed Gaza’s only power plant—a target of no strategic or military importance—Gazans relied on Israel to supply them with power. B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights advocacy group headquartered in Tel Aviv, stated in a press release: “Israel is under an obligation under international law to make reparation for the war [crime] it committed.”

Needless to say, Israel never atoned for the bombing. Instead, it has enforced sanctions on Gaza, and recently a blockade denying United Nations Relief and Works Agency convoys passage into Gaza to deliver critical aid supplies such as food, fuel, and medicine. On November 14, much of Gaza City plunged into darkness as it ran out of fuel to run the same power plant, repaired last year.

The United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and several Nobel laureates and peace activists warned of a looming humanitarian crisis if Israel does not lift its blockade as soon as possible. Former president Jimmy Carter said that the blockade amounts to the collective punishment of 1.4 million people and is, by any moral standard, a crime against humanity and “a heinous atrocity.” On Tuesday, a group of European lawmakers said they would petition the European Union to suspend a preferential trade agreement with Israel due to what they described as a “cruel” blockade of Gaza.

“Cruel” is an understatement. The Gaza milieu is miserable, far worse than most of us can imagine: Gazans have one of the lowest standards of living in the world, under an occupation which Bishop Desmond Tutu described as being “worse that the Apartheid.”

The Israeli rejoinder to such criticism—indeed any criticism—is its claim of self-defense. Sovereign countries have the right to defend their people when they are under threat. But Israel’s policies, much like Bush’s War on Terror, have put the nation at greater risk of reprisal rather than increased security. Israel has created an environment that fosters terrorism. The psychological effect the occupation is having on some uneducated, poor Gazan teenagers—who would like nothing more than to take revenge—has created a massive pool of potential suicide bombers. It’s also coarsened a new generation of Israeli soldiers.

While there is no justification for terrorism, it’s fair to assume that if Palestine had the luxury of $3 billion in annual military aid from the United States—if it could purchase tanks and bombers—its citizens wouldn’t have to resort to terrorism to regain expropriated land. For now, Palestinians can do little to defend themselves while Israel continues to confiscate their land and bulldoze their homes to make way for new settlements (deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice).

In the face of intensifying Israeli war crimes, impunity, and total disregard for international law, international civil society has to support Palestine and force Israel to lift its criminal blockade on Gaza. This is the most reliable path to freedom, justice, equality and peace in the entire region.