Passport Fraud by Mossad Spies in New Zealand


The New Zealand Herald
16th July 2004

 The New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, made a scathing attack on Israel and imposed tough diplomatic sanctions after two alleged Mossad spies were jailed for passport fraud yesterday.
 
Helen Clark said:

"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".

The sanctions, including suspending all high-level visits to or from Israel, came minutes after Uriel Zoshe Kelman, 31, and Eli Cara, 51, were sentenced to prison for six months for stealing the identity of a tetraplegic man to obtain a false New Zealand passport.

Helen Clark said there were "very strong grounds" to believe the men were acting for Israel's intelligence services.

The case was revealed by the Weekend Herald in April.

Last night Israel's Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said, "We are sorry about this matter. It will be dealt with and all will be done to restore Israel's long history of good relations with New Zealand to their previous correct ties."

Mr Shalom did not address the claim that the two convicted men were linked to Israel's intelligence services.

In court both men denied having links with spy agencies, such as Mossad.

Helen Clark said: 

 " If one were to lay espionage charges, one would have to be prepared to offer the kind of evidence in court which our intelligence agencies don't like coming forward to display. We have very strong grounds for believing these are Israeli intelligence agents."

  The sanctions are high on the scale of diplomatic displeasure between Governments, although they avoid targeting the 6000-plus Israeli tourists who visit New Zealand each year.

All Israelis coming to New Zealand on Government business must now obtain visas, Foreign Ministry consultations with Israel have been suspended and the Government has declined an approach for Israel's head of state, President Moshe Katsav, to visit in August.

Helen Clark said the case was a "sorry indictment" on Israel, with which New Zealand had long shared friendly relations. Ms Clark said:

"We regard it as an unfriendly action by agents of the Government of Israel, aimed at undermining New Zealand's sovereignty and certainly breaching international law. 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. This incident has seriously strained that relationship and it will remain strained for some time."

New Zealand had asked for an explanation and an apology three months ago."We look forward at some point to the Israeli Government swallowing its pride and offering the explanation and apology we have asked for."

Helen Clark ruled out any deals with the Israeli Government similar to the agreement the previous Labour Government reached with France in 1986 over the two French spies who bombed the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior.

The breach has parallels to a row in 1997 between Israel and Canada, which demanded Mossad stop using Canadian passports on covert operations.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said: "One of the most damaging things that has been done to Israel is the public exposure of the actions of their intelligence agencies in violating other people's sovereignty in total contradiction of international law."

Mr Goff said the agents were working for Mossad. 

"We have no doubt on our side that these were individuals who were not working simply as part of a private criminal organisation. These were people who were doing it on behalf of Israeli intelligence agencies." 

The convicted men, who have spent two weeks in prison awaiting sentence, are likely to remain behind bars for a further 10 weeks before being deported.

Israel's acting ambassador in Australia, Orma Sagiv, said she hoped Israel's relationship with New Zealand would not be damaged long-term.

The affair began after a tip-off to police from Internal Affairs over an application for a New Zealand passport by an Israeli, Zev William Barkan, 37, who has now fled the country.

Barkan took the identity of a man around the same age, who had cerebral palsy, in applying for a New Zealand passport.
 
Investigating Barkan, a covert police operation discovered Cara and Kelman near drop-off points for the couriered passport.

Read below additional articles on the Passport Fraud

• Editorial: To Prime Minister Helen Clark's credit,  she has taken suitable steps to show Israel, and any other country, that New Zealand will defend the integrity of its passports.   Read here for more
  
• Police have confirmed they are continuing to investigate the case of the alleged Mossad spies despite the jailing of two men this week. Sources have told the Weekend Herald that tracking whether the two men had help within New Zealand is a focus of inquiries. Read here for more
  
• An Auckland family have told how their tetraplegic son's identity was stolen by an Israeli secret agent who moved in just down the road. Zev Barkan, who has fled New Zealand and escaped the justice faced yesterday by his two co-accused spies, lived within 300m of the man in whose name he applied for a passport to assume a New Zealand identity. Read here for more
  
• Why Mossad is interested in New Zealand: When you think of Mossad, you think of daring missions and rescues. But you also think of assassinations of Israel's enemies. The value of a passport to an intelligence agent is the new identity it allows him to assume. "With a New Zealand passport they can work in international organisations or NGOs in the Middle East as an unsuspected person. It's not necessarily that being a New Zealander makes you more trusted, it's just that you're not an Israeli. Passports could also enable an agent to obtain other useful documents or identities. With a New Zealand passport, depending on the true owner's background, that might get you British permanent residency and you might then get an EU passport, " according to Dr Jim Rolfe, a former New Zealand Army officer and defence analyst who lectures at the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Honolulu.  Rolfe, too, believed Australia would be more interesting to Mossad than New Zealand. But obtaining a New Zealand passport would make the job of accessing Australia easier. Read here for more
  
• High-ranking Israeli officials are seeking a diplomatic solution to the New Zealand Government's decision to impose sanctions against the Middle East nation after the sentencing of two alleged intelligence agents for trying to illegally obtain New Zealand passports. But a formal apology from Israel's Government is not in the pipeline. That would be an admission of guilt, said a well-placed source. This is unlikely to happen given the New Zealand Government's stance on Palestine. Prime Minister Helen Clark's strong statement featured prominently on television bulletins in Israel on Thursday and was splashed across the front pages of all leading newspapers yesterday. Read here for more
  
• The Government has reacted angrily to New Zealand Jewish Council claims its stinging condemnation of Israel over the actions of the alleged Mossad spies is further evidence of bias against the state. And it has indicated, if necessary, it is prepared for the long-haul if it needs to maintain diplomatic sanctions against Israel. New Zealand Jewish Council president David Zwartz, also Israel's honorary counsel in New Zealand, claimed the Government's handling of the issue had added weight to the community's belief it was "anti-Israel". Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff angrily rejected all of Mr Zwartz' claims. Attempts to blame the Government for the "deplorable" grave attacks were ill-founded and would not justify silence in the face of criminal action, Mr Goff said. Read here for more
  
• The suspension of diplomatic ties with Israel following yesterday's jailing of two suspected spies is thought to be New Zealand's strongest diplomatic retaliation against a foreign government since David Lange tore strips off the French 20 years ago.  The Clark Government will judge that Canada set the precedent in taking a similarly tough line when that country's sovereignty was similarly breached by Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad - especially as Israel has failed to offer either explanation or apology in New Zealand's case.    Read here for more 

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