The following is IMRA's translation of the private letter sent by Attorney General Elyakim Rubenstein to Prime Minister Ehud Barak on December 27, 2000, as read on Israel Radio on the 5 PM news by correspondent Michael Tuchfeld:
While there is no legal limitation on a government during an election period, the legal consideration is not the central consideration. The instructions of the law are designed only to prevent the creation of a vacuum in authority and not for the setting of dramatic, fateful, all-encompassing changes like an agreement with the Palestinians.
There is a great distance between the paralysis of the government that the promulgators of the law wished to avoid and dramatic moves.
An election-eve agreement with the Palestinians should be such that it does not raise the suspicion, even for appearance sake, that it was subject to time-related considerations--namely, election considerations --and thus great care and constant awareness is required of these suspicions, and even more so in the case of a minority government whose prime minister has resigned.
The agreement being negotiated is different from all its predecessors. This is dealing with the setting of the borders of the nation, the extent of its capital, including concessions in territory, including, to my great sorrow, the tearing apart of the nation both by the decision and its implementation. Decisions that will be difficult to withdraw from. All of these are great reasons for much care to be taken.
I raise doubt as to the moral authority of the government as the resigned prime minister awaits re-election and when the president of the United States, who is acting as midwife for the agreement, will no longer bear any responsibility for the implementation of the agreement since his days at the White House are over and the operative meaning of the agreement will be the removal of settlements, dramatic changes in Jerusalem cutting into the very bone of the city, etc.
The government is the representative of the entire public and thus should carefully weigh heavy nation-dividing decisions made during its waning hours. I bring to your attention the laws enacted in the Knesset protecting Jerusalem and the law requiring a majority of 61 for changes in the borders of the sovereign territory of Israel. Such diplomatic agreements must be presented to the Knesset for approval and considering the current parliamentary situation it can be assumed that this would not be done before the elections but rather upon the establishment of a new government.
I also raise doubt as to the ability of the Palestinians to honor the agreement, both from a security standpoint and in terms of their willingness to maintain true legal relations with Israel.
I oppose the agreement regarding the Temple Mount. I doubt that there is room for expecting generosity from the Palestinians in their recognizing our connection to the Temple Mount.
I do not want to put barriers against the efforts for peace, but it is my obligation to say what I have said.
Elyakim Rubenstein
Attorney General
[Minister of Justice Beilin appeared on the program a few minutes later, explaining that the public would have the option to reject the agreement in a referendum. Prime Minister Barak explained that in a referendum on the agreement, the public would have the option to choose between the agreement and a devastating war.]
...Sheikh Youssef Abu Snenia, who appears regularly on Palestinan Authority Television, marked the conclusion of the recent Ramadan holiday with a speech urging the masses to become "fighting martyrs" against "the American-Israeli conspiracy." The speech was broadcast over official PA Radio...
...Jews should be prohibited from blowing the shofar (ram's horn) at the Western Wall, Palestinian Legislative Council member Ziad Abu Zayyad said on December 31, citing a 1929 decision by the British Mandate regime. Zayyad said that the Wall is "the Burak wall and thus part of the Al Aqsa Mosque"...
...Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who had been briefly jailed for criticizing Arafat, was set free by the PA on December 31 and promptly announced that Hamas will soon resume its suicide bombings...
...On two occasions in late December, Palestinian Arab drivers rammed into Israeli cars, killing the Israeli drivers, and then fled into nearby Palestinian Authority-controlled territory...
...A memorial to Holocaust victims, located at Kibbutz Givat Oz--near Megiddo, in pre-1967 Israel--was desecrated on December 22 by Arabs who painted swastikas, the word "Palestine," and other Arabic slogans on it...
January 2001 - 7 - Outpost