For the now almost 7.2 million Palestinians scattered in every corner of the globe, November 29th is a day of special commemoration. It marks a United Nations-designated day of International Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Some 54 years ago, in 1947 on the same date, the General Assembly of the UN adopted Resolution 181, which is generally known as the Partition Resolution because it espoused the creation of a "Jewish State" and an "Arab State" within the borders of historical Palestine.
With the resolution was born a reality: that the land of Palestine, beloved by its native multi-denominational Palestinian population, was to be divided with the full weight of international sanction.
In the ensuing year, following intense civil strife, Palestinians were to be dispossessed of cities such as Haifa and Jaffa which had formed the heart of Palestinian society for generations.
The resolution itself, designed to be an instrument of international arbitration, was ironically a violent trigger for conflict in the region. As a result of civil conflict in 1948, Israel was declared by the minority population of Jewish migrant settlers and was granted recognition by the UN, in accordance with the partition plan.
On the other hand, millions of Palestinian citizens were forcibly displaced from their cities and villages into neighbouring countries, and even expelled by Israeli forces, contrary to UN intentions, from land proposed as the Arab portion of the Palestine Partition Plan.
In essence, a historical inequality was born from Resolution 181 and hence the reason for the often mixed feelings displayed by Palestinians on November 29th. Israel existed with full diplomatic access to influential organisations such as the UN, whereas Palestinian national interests were relegated by the international family, and almost wishfully forgotten.
The proven steadfastness of Palestinian national aspirations before and since 1947, however, has left an indelible mark on international politics.
A highly evolved and modern Palestinian identity has defiantly emerged despite an often high degree of prejudice, adversity and negation.
Yet even though November 29th raises the spectre of more than 50 years of adversity for the Palestinian people, and hence sorrow, it also raises the hope of a brighter future in which Palestinians and Israelis will live side by side in peace and prosperity.
On this annual commemorative occasion it is a fact not lost on any Palestinian that Resolution 181 was the founding stone upon which Israel gained legitimacy. It was in essence also to be the founding stone of Arab Palestinian statehood.
Palestinian national aspirations are continually rebutted by Israel. Our national institutions are under constant threat from a highly sophisticated and US-sponsored Israeli military. Internationally condemned, Israel also continues to build and establish settlements that encroach further on the lives of the remaining majority Palestinian cities in the West Bank and Gaza.
The International Day of Solidarity has traditionally provided an opportunity for the international community to focus attention on the fact that the question of Palestine is still unresolved.
This year especially, in the wake of the horrendous attacks in America, and with an ever-changing political geography in the Middle East, there is an opportunity to bring this long-standing question to a close.
Taking advantage of the opportunity for peace in the wake of the Gulf War, Palestinians and Israelis met in Madrid in 1991 to forge a historic agreement. Last month marked the tenth anniversary of the Madrid Conference.
As the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, pointed out in his extensive address to the University of Louisville in Kentucky last week, it was a time to look forward as well as back.
The Secretary of State's address strove for balance on many of the contentious issues in the Middle East process, and demonstrated reflection on the part of the United States in terms of its policy in the Middle East as well as heralding a substantive commitment towards moving the peace process along. This is very welcome.
The UN, the US and the EU must bring their moral and political strength to bear on finding an appropriate and just solution to this long- drawn-out problem.
There is an obvious but sad conclusion to the current state of affairs whereby with blatant impunity Israel enters Palestinian cities, rolls its tanks over refugee camps, bombards police stations, and carries out extra-judicial killings of political activists.
The obvious conclusion is a political stalemate, continued insecurity and volatility in the region.
This year, in commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I look forward to the occasion when our national aspirations will be realised, and our international legitimacy as a people recognised.
Ali Halimeh is the Palestinian delegate-general, in effect ambassador, to Ireland