A right-wing Israeli lawmaker drew fire for suggesting Ehud Olmert should be executed if he cedes the Golan Heights to Syria.
“Anyone who has committed an act which could cause the country’s territory to be ceded is liable to imprisonment or the death sentence,” Arye Eldad of the National Union bloc said Monday, after it was announced that Israel and Syria had relaunched peace talks.
Damascus has said it received an understanding from Olmert to return the Golan Heights to Syria if an accord is signed, something denied by the Israeli prime minister.
Eldad’s remarks recalled for many Israelis the rhetoric against former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin before his 1995 assassination by an extremist opposed to Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
President Shimon Peres was among the politicians who condemned Eldad for his “incitement,” but the lawmaker was unbowed, saying he was merely citing Israel’s penal code.
“I refer this issue to the attorney general,” Eldad told Israel Radio on Tuesday.
Unlike the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Golan was annexed to Israel, meaning that it falls under sovereign law.
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