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Sommer El-Khatib English 1 Block 1 Mrs. Knowles 21 October, 2013 Palestinian Identity My father was born in Beirut Lebanon as a Palestinian refugee. My grandparents were born in Palestine. When the Jewish settlers started to flow by the hundreds of thousands into the country of Palestine, with the help of the British, they took over the country and established the Zionist state of Israel. With the help of their Zionist gangs, they terrorized Palestinian villages and towns. They started to push Palestinians out of the county including my grandparents. Palestinians should have their own state of Palestine because it will bring peace and security to the Palestinians and the Israelis. It also will decrease the number of refugees when they get a home land. Creating a separate state for Palestinians will bring peace and security for the Palestinians and Israelis. Hafizullah Emadi explains "Maintenance of a durable peace between Israel and Palestine requires mutual recognition and respect for each other's right to exist (The Palestinian Struggle page 10)." Basically, Emadi is saying that if each country acknowledges each others rights there will be respect and peace between the two. Millions of Palestinians live in refugee camps all around the Middle East and in the West Bank. The refugees are living miserable lives in camps. The Palestinians in the West Bank are under Israeli occupation, and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are under restrictions of travel by the Israeli army. By creating a free state of Palestine it gives the Palestinians hope, identity and future. Also it would give Israel security of not fighting the Palestinians. In the article The Statehood of Palestine:International Law in the

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Middle East Conflict Barbra Peck explains that The very aims of peace and stability that the international community poses as its objectives would be served following through on the logical impactions of Palestinians statehood (Page 2). Pecks point is that impacting Palestines statehood would bring peace. Creating a separate state for the Palestinians will decrease the number of refugees. The occupation of Palestine has caused an increasing number of Palestinian refugees in other countries. I believe that creating a separate state will help decrease the number of refugees. Emadi observes that At present Palestinians make up 20% of the Israeli population.(Page 1 The Palestinian Struggle). That is saying that the other 80% of the Palestinians are refugees, therefore creating a separate state of Palestine would help decrease that number. For myself, as a Palestinian, I believe that the increasing number of refugees is because of the creation of Israel. Emadi states that The Palestinians became disposed refugees throughout the Middle East after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 (page 1 The Palestinian struggle). To provide peace and security, also to decrease the number of refugees in the Middle East, creating a separate state of Palestine would be the logical answer though the Israelis would argue by creating a separate state would not aid anyone. The two have been fighting for many years and now that a simple solution to the problem has come along they deny it. Providing the separate state would decrease the number of refugees, also it brings peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis because they would not be fighting over the same land. My recommendation to the simple solution of fighting and mischief between the Palestinians and the Israelis is to create a separate state of Palestine. This will provide peace and will provide Palestinian refugees with hope, identity and a future. If you had the choice between

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peace and war for many more years, what would you choose? The logical thing to do is create a separate state of Palestine.