News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) The Israel Legal Forum has called on Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to instruct Prime Minister Olmert to halt negotiations with Syria immediately, and has demanded the prime minister be investigated for the felony of negotiating with an enemy state without government approval.

In a strongly worded letter to Mazuz, Attorney Yosef Fuchs, cited a 1977 legal statute that forbids any Israeli citizen from discussing transfer of sovereign Israeli territory with any nation at war with Israel. Fuchs noted that the provisions in this law also forbid any member of the Israeli government from negotiating the transfer of sovereign Israeli land to a nation at war with Israel without the express approval of the Israeli government.  

"Israel, as opposed to countries that maintain a presidential system, operates with a parliamentary system," read the letter. "Unlike a president, who has the authority to make singled handed state decisions, the prime minister of Israel is subject to the laws, procedures, checks and balances which oversee the operation of the Israeli government."