The Hill News

When the United Nations General Assembly meets this month, I will be in New York City with thousands of supporters of Palestine from across the world, peacefully demonstrating for member countries to recognize my Palestinian homeland as an independent sovereign state and to achieve our goal of seeing Palestine become a member  of the United Nations.

We have waited a long time for the world to recognize our right to an independent homeland â€" a right guaranteed by international law.  We now find ourselves in a unique period when the movement of self-determination is sweeping the Middle East.  As a student organizer for the nation-wide movement, Students for Statehood, I have been working to support the Palestinian national movement in an effort to persuade the world to recognize our long overdue independence.  Our goal is international recognition and self-determination for all Palestinians living around the world.

Over 125 countries â€" represen! ting 75% of the global population â€" already recognize Palestinian statehood on the internationally agreed 1967 borders, including countries such as Brazil, Argentina, India and China.  Even the International Olympic Committee and football’s world governing body,FIFA, formally recognize Palestinian sporting teams as separate entities. With two-thirds of Palestinians supporting the campaign for international recognition of the state of Palestine, according to a recent poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in Ramallah, it is my hope that Palestine will be admitted as the 194th United Nations member state.
 

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