Mideast situation/Jerusalem – LAS Council resolution – Letter from Palestine

Letter dated 15 May 2001 from the Permanent Observer of Palestine

to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

I have the honour to transmit to you herewith the text of resolution 115/6053, entitled “Question of Jerusalem”, which was adopted by the Council of the League of Arab States meeting at its one hundred and fifteenth regular session at the level of ministers for foreign affairs, held at the seat of the League’s secretariat in Cairo on 12 March 2001.

I should be grateful if you would have this letter and its annex circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under agenda items 40, 41, 85 and 98, and of the Security Council.

(Signed) Nasser Al-Kidwa

Ambassador

Permanent Observer

Annex to the letter dated 15 May 2001 from the Permanent Observer

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

Question of Jerusalem

The Council of the League of Arab States,

Having considered:

The note by the Secretariat;

The recommendation adopted by the Arab Conference of Officials in Charge of Palestinian Affairs in the Host Countries at its sixty-fifth session;

The relevant resolutions of the Summit Conferences and of the United Nations;

Its previous resolutions on the same subject;

And the recommendation of the Political Affairs Committee,

Noting with concern the deteriorating situation in the city of Jerusalem caused by ongoing Israeli practices aimed at its Judaization and at the expulsion of its Palestinian residents and the seizure of their property and resulting from the expansion of existing settlements and the repeated imposition of closures,

Decides:

1. To affirm Palestinian sovereignty over East Jerusalem and the importance of the city both as the capital of the State of Palestine and in order to ensure geographical contiguity and the freedom of movement and of economic activity of the Palestinian people;

2. To affirm the Arab character of Jerusalem and of its antiquities and Holy Places, and in particular the status of the Buraq Wall (Western Wall) as an Islamic, Palestinian and Arab monument; and to confirm the December 1930 findings of the Commission appointed by the British Government, with the approval of the Council of the League of Nations, concerning the Arab right to the Western or Wailing Wall [A/7057/Add.1-S/8427/Add.1];

3. To hold Israel responsible for any danger to the Buraq Wall, of any kind whatever, arising out of any threatened assaults upon it by the Israeli authorities or by Jewish extremists;

4. To affirm the established Arab position concerning the illegal character of moves to relocate the embassy of the United States of America to Jerusalem; and to recall the resolution adopted by the Eleventh Arab Summit Conference, held in Amman in 1980, concerning the severance of relations with countries that relocate their embassies to Jerusalem or recognize the city as the capital of Israel;

5. To urge the international community to bring pressure to bear on Israel to halt all of its illegal practices and measures in Jerusalem, which are in violation of all the relevant international covenants and conventions, and to do so in particular in relation to settlement activities, the expropriation of land, excavations, the withdrawal of identity documents and the imposition of blockades;

6. To call upon humanitarian and human rights organizations to support the litigation seeking to establish that the leasing by the United States of America of the land on which it intends to build its embassy is illegal;

7. To intensify efforts with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to give effect to Executive Board decision 159 EX/3.4.1, relating to Jerusalem, and to General Conference resolution 30 C/28 in order to ensure the completion of the mission entrusted to the American expert Oleg Graber, who, in accordance with the spirit of the 1972 Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, was commissioned to prepare a report on the cultural heritage of Jerusalem;

8. To appeal to the United Nations and its specialized agencies as well as to other international and regional organizations to refrain from participating in conferences held in Jerusalem as long as the city is occupied and no agreement in its regard has been reached;

9. To request the Secretariat to intensify its consultations with all the members of the Security Council and with other States in order to explain the issue of Jerusalem, affirm the Arab position in its regard and state that position at international conferences and in international forums and to strive for compliance with the resolutions that embody international legitimacy, specifically Security Council resolution 242 (1967), in which the Council emphasizes the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force, and resolution 252 (1968), in which it considers Israeli measures for the Judaization of the city of Jerusalem to be illegal;

10. To take the necessary measures to have the Al-Aqsa Fund play a more active role in funding projects for the preservation of the Arab and Islamic identity of Jerusalem and for enabling the Palestinian economy to develop its indigenous capacities, disengage from the Israeli economy and cope with the policy of isolation and blockade.

Resolution 6053

One hundred and fifteenth regular session

2nd meeting

12 March 2001