- New Zealand suspended high-level contacts with Israel
after two suspected Mossad intelligence agents were convicted of trying
to fraudulently obtain a New Zealand passport.
-
- Prime Minister Helen Clark said she would stop a planned
visit by Israeli President Moshe Katsav in August. She also said Israeli
officials would need visas to enter New Zealand and foreign ministry contacts
would be suspended.
-
- In an angry statement issued after an Auckland High Court
Thursday jailed the two men, Clark said their actions had amounted to a
breach of New Zealand's sovereignty.
-
- "The New Zealand government views the act carried
out by the Israeli intelligence agents as not only utterly unacceptable
but also a breach of New Zealand sovereignty and international law,"
she said.
-
- Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he regretted
the New Zealand move and expressed hope that the row could soon be resolved.
-
- "Israel has a long tradition of excellent relations
with New Zealand, and we will do everything necessary -- together with
the New Zealand government -- to restore relations," he told Israeli
public radio.
-
- "Of course, we regret this response, but we think
this decision is a decision that can be fixed."
-
- Katsav's office denied that any trip to New Zealand had
been in the pipeline while the president himself told army radio that he
hoped "things would become clear and resolve themselves."
-
- The two men, Uriel Zoshe Kelman and Eli Cara, were arrested
on March 23 after an undercover police operation and pleaded guilty last
month to charges including fraudulently attempting to obtain a New Zealand
passport.
-
- Auckland High Court Justice Judith Potter Thursday sentenced
the two men to six months in jail. She ordered them both to pay 50,000
NZ dollars (32,800 US dollars) to the Cerebral Palsy Society after they
used the name of a disabled man in their bid to get a false passport.
-
- The New Zealand leader said the case had "seriously
strained our relationship" with Israel and warned that "no approach
by Israel to intervene in the sentences" would be entertained.
-
- She said Israel had been asked for an explanation and
an apology, without success. "Absolutely zilch. No apology, no explanation,"
Clark said.
-
- Lawyers for the two men told the court there was no evidence
to suggest their clients were members of the Israeli intelligence agency
Mossad.
-
- "That allegation has never formed part of the prosecution
case," defending lawyer Stuart Grieve said.
-
- He said Cara -- a former Israeli air force pilot -- ran
a bona fide tourism business in Sydney and that he only came to New Zealand
on business and holidays.
-
- However, Clark was clear about whom she blamed for the
case.
-
- "The Israeli agents attempted to demean the integrity
of the New Zealand passport system and could have created considerable
difficulties for New Zealanders presenting their passports overseas in
future," she said.
-
- "This type of behaviour is unacceptable internationally
by any country. It is a sorry indictment of Israel that it has again taken
such actions against a country with which it has friendly relations."
-
- Clark said it was not the first time Israel had sought
fraudulently to obtain passports from another country.
-
- "Israeli agents caught in an unsuccessful assassination
attempt in Jordan in 1997 were found to be carrying fraudulent Canadian
passports," she said.
-
- "While we regret the need for it, New Zealand has
no option but to take the actions that it has in response to a deliberate
breach of its sovereignty," she added.
-
- Israeli officials made no comment about the allegations
that the pair were members of the Mossad overseas intelligence agency.
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