Assistance to the Palestinian people – Letter from Iraq

Identical letters dated 26 November 2000 from the Permanent Representative

of Iraq to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

and to the President of the Security Council

On instructions from my Government, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a letter dated 26 November 2000 addressed to you by Mr. Mohammed Said Al-Sahaf, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq, in which he conveys the request of the Government of Iraq that you should allocate to the Palestinian people part of the revenue from the memorandum of understanding signed by Iraq and the United Nations on 20 May 1996, in order to support that people in its defence of its land, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

I should be grateful if you would have this letter and its annex circulated as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Saeed H. Hasan

Ambassador

Permanent Representative

Annex to the identical letters dated 26 November 2000 from

the Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations addressed

to the Secretary-General and to the President of the Security Council

You have, I am sure, been closely following the events that have been taking place in occupied Palestine, including acts of aggression, liquidation and killing unleashed by the Zionist occupiers upon the long-suffering Palestinian people as it fights for its freedom. Current events in occupied Palestine are, in fact, another manifestation of the oppressive, colonialist Zionist occupation which the Palestinian people has endured for more than 50 years. To date, hundreds of martyrs have fallen as a result of the current Zionist aggression and thousands have been injured. The Zionist occupiers have also imposed a complete economic blockade on the Palestinian people, with the aim of liquidating that people by all manner of oppressive and colonialist means.

The colonialist measures imposed by the Zionist occupiers include curfews and restrictions on the movement of workers between the Palestinian towns, in addition to the destruction by the forces of the Zionist occupation of farms and agricultural lands belonging to Palestinian farmers, the demolition of homes, the uprooting or burning of trees in the fields, the imposition of a tyrannical and oppressive blockade intended to starve the Palestinian people, the cutting off of electricity, which deprives the whole population of vital services, including health services in hospitals treating sick persons and the thousands of casualties resulting from the bombardment and gunfire of the Zionist occupiers and the hordes of settlers, who are continuing to expand the Zionist colonialist occupation of the usurped Palestinian territories.

These criminal Zionist acts against the Palestinian people have aggravated unemployment, depriving hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families of their income and livelihood, and brought poverty to all classes of Palestinian people, denying them the most basic means of subsistence, namely, food and medicine. Such acts amount to the genocide of an entire people that is protected by all the international conventions. They also, and primarily, represent a flagrant violation of all the international human rights instruments and the right to life and are clearly incompatible with the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and the rules of international law.

The Arabs, throughout their lands, are one nation. Iraq looks upon the Palestinian people as part of the Iraqi people, just as the Iraqi people is part of the Palestinian people and both peoples are an inseparable part of the one Arab nation. In view of the fact that the Palestinian people is, as we have already stated, currently being besieged and exposed to all manner of killing and destruction, Iraq considers that what is happening to the fraternal Palestinian people also affects the Iraqi people. The Government of the Republic of Iraq therefore officially requests you to allocate to the Palestinian people part of the revenue from the memorandum of understanding signed by Iraq and the United Nations on 20 May 1996, in order to support that people in its national position in defence of its land, which is its legitimate right in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. The Government of Iraq is preparing to this end the measures which it considers necessary and urgent in order to support the fraternal Palestinian people, and awaits your approval before preparing a list of requirements for the Palestinian people which will be paid for by Iraqi revenue from the memorandum of understanding.

In submitting to you our official request, we hope that you will exert your utmost endeavours to ensure that approval is expeditiously obtained, in view of the unprecedented aggression and criminal acts to which the Palestinian people, as it fights for its freedom, is being subjected at the hands of the Zionist occupiers.

(Signed) Mohammed Said Al-Sahaf

Minister for Foreign Affairs

of the Republic of Iraq