The spy who… *ahem*
The NZ Herald has it as breaking news – the SIS is on the trail of suspected Israeli spies (I can see it in lights, Inside New Zealand: The Israeli spies who could).
Three Israelis were among those who died during the 22 February Christchurch earthquake, with one found to be carrying at least five passports.
According to the NZ Herald, in the hours after the 6.3 earthquake struck:
- Prime Minister John Key fielded the first of four calls that day from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
- Israel's Ambassador in the South Pacific, Shemi Tzur, who is based in Australia, booked flights to Christchurch, where he visited the morgue
- Israel's civil defence chief left Israel for Christchurch
- A complete Israeli urban search and rescue squad was assembled and flown to Christchurch, arriving about the same time as…
- Three people who had smashed their way out of a van crushed by a concrete pillar in the central city, leaving a fourth person dead in the vehicle, arrived back in Israel
It seems there was a fair bit of activity on – who knew a Government could act so quickly!
Smashing your way out of a crushed vehicle and travelling back to your home country seems a wee bit suspicious. I know people are fed up and want to get out of Christchurch, but this seemed awfully quick.
John Key is keeping mum on this one. He has confirmed passports were found on the men, but none of them were NZ passports. However, he is not confirming if the SIS are involved, saying it is “not in national interest” to disclose such information.
An unnamed SIS officer has spoken out though, saying there were fears a group of Israelis had accessed the police national computer database, which holds records of convictions and other information collected by police.
This is not the first time there has been suspected Israeli activity in New Zealand though. In July 2004, New Zealand imposed diplomatic sanctions against Israel and suspended high-level contact between the two countries after two Israeli citizens were convicted of passport fraud. According to the Government, there was strong evidence the two men were Mossad agents, and then Prime Minister Helen Clark was quoted saying:
“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.”
No doubt time will tell with this one, and with the rate of reporting we are seeing, we should get more facts relatively soon. It will be interesting to watch how this affects our country’s relationship with Israel, as it stands diplomatic relations were re-established in August 2005 and exports for the year reached NZ$16.834 million, with imports sitting at $60.1 million – you can only imagine those figures have increased over the years.
The Herald is running a poll on what the public think – to have your say click here.
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