It is difficult to overstate Israel’s accomplishment as it prepares to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its declaration of independence this month.

United Nations resolutions notwithstanding, its hold over the Occupied Territories is stronger than ever. Although foreign statesmen still call for a two-state solution, they do so formalistically, as if trying to sound sincere but not naive. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in March that Israel would retain control of “the area west of the Jordan” regardless of whether Israel concluded a peace agreement with the Palestinians, he was studiously ignored. Even Israel’s former enemies, shaken by the Arab Spring and a resurgent Iran, have come to realise that they have more in common with the Netanyahu government than they once thought.

On May 14, the United States will crown Israel’s triumph by relocating its embassy to Jerusalem. Previously the international community, understanding that a capital in East Jerusalem is indispensable to Palestinian statehood, has been united in refusing to recognise Israel’s claim to the whole of Jerusalem. Today that consensus is shattered. Guatemala, Paraguay  and the Czech Republic have announced that they too will be relocating their embassies and it is likely that other countries will follow suit.

The Palestinians, meanwhile, will be commemorating 70 years of colonisation and displacement. As Jewish settlements expand and link up and Israeli bulldozers return again and again to demolish first houses, then shacks, and finally plastic tents, a new generation of refugees is being created in areas earmarked for Jewish colonisation.

The conclusion of this process is to be found in today’s Gaza Strip. Because of overpopulation, a punitive blockade and the destruction of public infrastructure by the Israeli airforce, roughly half of Gaza’s population suffers from what the UN describes as “food insecurity”, 90 per cent of Gaza’s water is unfit for human consumption, beaches are polluted with untreated sewage and fishermen are shot for sailing too far from the shore. Even within Gaza, as much as half of the arable land lies within a “buffer-zone” wherein Palestinians can be shot on sight.