Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, has submitted a formal proposal to the United Nations for Palestinian statehood, a bid that is expected to fail.
In an address to the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday he said the Palestinian people deserved "their freedom and independence. The time has come for my courageous and proud people, after decades of displacement and colonial occupation and ceaseless suffering, to live like other peoples of the earth, free in a sovereign and independent homeland," he said.
He added: "My people desire to exercise their right to enjoy a normal life like the rest of humanity. They believe what the great poet Mahmoud Darwish said: Standing here, staying here, permanent here, eternal here, and we have one goal, one, one: to be. We extend our hands to the Israeli government to the Israeli people for peace making, I say to them let us urgently build together a future for our children where they can enjoy freedom, security and prosperity," he said.