MK Yinon Magal (Jewish Home) has asked the Attorney General, Yehuda Weinstein, to file charges against the former Director of the Foreign Ministry, Alon Liel, on allegations of treason.
According to Magal, Liel has been working to get European parliaments to recognize a Palestinian state on 1967 borders, and in some cases has explicitly stated that such a state should have eastern Jerusalem as its capital.
In a letter to Weinstein, Magal noted that section 97b of the penal code, under the heading “Treason,” refers to “a person who, with the purpose of causing any territory to be removed from the sovereignty of the state or to enter the sovereignty of a foreign state, took action to bring this about” and defines the maximal penalties for this as death or life in prison.
Magal notes that he does not think Liel’s alleged actions merit the most severe punishment, but says that the very fact that the law set the punishment at such a high level means that it cannot be ignored.
According to a recent Arutz Sheva article by Ronn Torossian, Liel holds radical viewpoints which the majority of Israelis, even those on the Left, oppose, from calling on high school trips to the Golan “a provocation” in 2007, to saying that Jonathan Pollard is not a hero, but a man who betrayed his country.
Liel’s wife, Rachel Liel, is the President of the New Israel Fund.