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NZ censures Israel over passport affair
The government of New Zealand announced a series of sanctions against Israel yesterday following the sentencing of two Israelis who sought to illegally obtain New Zealand passports. The two were accused by New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark of being Israeli intelligence agents. Under the sanctions, all Israeli officials wishing to enter New Zealand are now required to acquire entry visas prior to arrival. Prime Minister Clark also announced that New Zealand was unwilling to receive President Moshe Katsav during a visit that he planned to carry out in Australia and New Zealand in August. The visits of senior delegations to and from New Zealand have also been canceled, and the credentials of the new Israeli ambassador will not be approved, while contacts with the local honorary consuls of Israel in New Zealand will be severely limited.At the completion of a trial in Auckland yesterday, in which Elisha Cara, 50, and Uriel Kelman, 31, were found guilty of seeking to obtain a New Zealand passport through illegal means, and of belonging to a criminal organization, the two were sentenced to six months' jail and fined 50,000 New Zealand dollars. After the court passed its verdict, Clark announced that they operated "on behalf of the intelligence services of Israel." Foreign Minister Phil Goff said, "We know this, the government of Israel knows this and it knows why we know," that they are agents of the Mossad. The minister suggested in an interview with Israel Radio that the arrest of the two Israelis was not an isolated incident and hinted at claims made to Haaretz by New Zealand police that the Mossad had allegedly sought to acquire as many authentic passports as possible in a long-term operation. The New Zealand sources pointed to the fact that Cara, who claims to be a tourist agent based in Australia, entered New Zealand 24 times during the past three and a half years. The Australian daily, The Age, reported that Canberra had also initiated an operation to uncover whether its sovereignty had also been compromised by alleged Israeli agents. Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-07-16 |
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