The leftist-Islamist axis of evil still going strong.

(AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is backing the push for Palestinian statehood in a letter released Tuesday, saying the Palestinian people have a right to be recognized as a nation.

Chavez said in the letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the UN General Assembly that Venezuela supports “Palestine’s right to become a free, sovereign and independent state.”

“This represents an act of historic justice toward a people who carry with them, from time immemorial, all the pain and suffering of the world,” Chavez wrote in the letter, dated September 17.

Chavez is in Cuba this week for cancer treatment and has said he will closely be following the UN debate on the Palestinian issue and also the conflict in Libya.

Chavez said “conflict resolution in the Middle East must, necessarily, bring justice to the Palestinian people.”

He condemned what he called the “Palestinian genocide,” blaming “Zionism” as well as the US role in the Middle East.