2004 Israel–New Zealand passport scandal

Prime Minister Helen Clark

On July 15, 2004, New Zealand imposed diplomatic sanctions against Israel and suspended high-level contacts between the two countries in July of 2005 after two Israeli citizens, Uriel Zosha Kelman and Eli Cara, were convicted of passport fraud in Auckland.

New Zealand police allege that a third Israeli citizen, former Israeli diplomat Zev William Barkan, was the one who actually tried to get the passport. Tony Resnick, a former paramedic with St John Ambulance, to which the cerebral palsy sufferer also belonged, is also believed to have been involved. Barkan and Resnick were never found, but are believed to have left New Zealand before Kelman and Cara were caught. The New Zealand government said there was strong evidence that the two men were Mossad agents and Prime Minister 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." Kelman and Cara, who denied membership in Mossad but plead guilty to trying to enter the country illegally and working with organized criminal gangs, were sentenced to six months in jail. They were also ordered to pay US $32,500 to a cerebral palsy charity because they tried to collect a passport in the name of a wheelchair-bound cerebral palsy victim. After serving either two or three months they were deported. Cara, who visited New Zealand 24 times between October 2000 and March 2005, claims he was working as a travel agent.

The trial

The case was presided over by Judge Chris Field. Cara was respresented by Grant Illingworth and Kelman was represented by Nigel Faigan. Illingworth and Faigan unsuccessfully tried to get the case dismissed early on by saying that pre-trial publicity was of a "highly prejudicial content which is not part of the Crown case." Howard Way, a Lynfield general practitioner testified that a man using the name of the cerebral palsy sufferer in question had visited him. After the consultation the man, who the police suspect was Barkan, asked Way to witness his passport application as soon as possible because he was going to Australia to get married. Way said the man was "calm and gave me no reason not to believe him. I filled out the form." A fake post office box and voicemail phone service were also set up in the name of the victim, whose birth certificate was used in the passport application. New Zealand Internal Affairs official Ian Tingey saw the irregularity and called the applicant. Tingey said that the applicant's accent was Canadian or American. "When I quizzed him on his accent his explanantion to me was he had not travelled or held a New Zealand passport before but had spent a lot of time in New Zealand with Canadian friends and family." Tingey contacted the father of the cebebral palsy victim and realized the application was a fraud. The police bugged Kelman and Cara's phones, set up a sting operation, and caught Kelman and Cara in March of 2005. Barkan was never found.

Repercussions

Prime Minister Clark canceled a planned visit to New Zealand in August by Israeli President Moshe Katzav, delayed approval for a new Israeli ambassador to New Zealand, and called the case "far more than simple criminal behaviour by two individuals" which "seriously strained our relationship." Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom expressed sorrow, and said that Israel would work to repair the relationship. Dr. Alon Liel, former Director-General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said that Israel must protest the diplomatic sanctions, "for if not, it's a silent admission that the two men worked for the Mossad."

The sanctions included suspending official visits to Israel and foreign ministry contacts, requiring visas for Israeli officials to enter New Zealand. Clark said, "The ball is in Israel's court as to where it wants to move from here. Three months ago we asked for an apology and an explanation. That has not been forthcoming."

Clark said that an official inquiry that began after Cara and Kelman were arrested, revealed that an Israeli passports factory had been issuing New Zealand passports. "We turned up a very small number that emanated from what we believe to be Israeli intelligence. Those passports have been cancelled and it would be futile to attempt to use them."

Jewish graves in Wellington were vandalized with Swastikas and Nazi slogans carved into and around 16 Jewish graves. The head of the New Zealand-Jewish community, David Zwartz, said, "there is a direct connection between the very strong expressions against Israel and people here feeling they can take it out on Jews. It seems to me Israel-bashing one day, Jew-bashing the next day."

Reconciliation

On June 26, 2005 Foreign Minister Shalom sent a letter of apology to the New Zealand government saying, "In this context, we wish to express our regret for the activities which resulted in the arrest and conviction of two Israel citizens in New Zealand on criminal charges and apologize for the involvement of Israeli citizens in such activities. Israel commits itself to taking steps to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents in the future." Diplomatic relations were fully re-established on August 30, 2005 when Naftali Tamir presented his credentials, which were accepted, to Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright before a guard of honor." The Foreign Minister's deputy director for Asia and the Pacific, Amos Nadav, said, "We are happy the crisis is behind us and look ahead to the future."

When Shalom and Jan Henderson, the New Zealand ambassador to Turkey, met for reconciliation talks on October 26, 2005, an Israeli government statement noted that the meeting was the first between high ranking New Zealander and Israeli officials "since the incident with the Mossad". Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev denied that it was an official admission of Mossad activity in New Zealand and said the "incident with the Mossad" should have been in inverted commas to reflect that the espionage is alleged only by the New Zealand government. "We have never said more than we have said in the case. This issue has been solved in a satisfactory way with the New Zealand government."

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Foreign Minister Phil Goff

Australian Jewish News credited NZ MP Taito Phillip Field, a Jewish-Samoan political novice, of acting as a bridge between the two governments when he visited Nissan Krupsky, the former Israeli ambassador to New Zealand, in Israel in December. AJN reported that Field met with Israeli Foreign Ministry officials secretly because of the NZ ban on meetings between the government's officials. New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff denied Field played any significant role in overcoming the diplomatic impasse on July 1. "It wasn't a high-level visit. What he was doing was in a private capacity to see people he knew in Israel and I didn't raise any objection to him going." According to AJN, "While Field's visit eventually turned out to have critical diplomatic significance, it was described as private so as not to be seen as violating the sanctions imposed by Clark. Nonetheless, throughout his visit Field served as middleman between the two Governments, maintaining phone contacts with Wellington in order to secure Clark's approval for the start of the Ankara talks." Foreign Minister Goff denied that the talks between Israeli FM official Michael Ronen and Ambassador Henderson were a direct result of Field's visit.

Nadav said New Zealand once "had excellent warm and friendly relations before and we wish to restore them to that same intensity. Yet we don't want to rush things by inundating New Zealand with ideas and programmes."

Criticism of the Clark administration

NZ MP Ken Shirley accused the Clark administration of aggravating the tension by refusing to allow an Israeli Deputy Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi to visit New Zealand for one day because of the freeze on visits from Israeli officials. Shirley said sanctions were supposed to only deny entry Israeli diplomats on official business and "This was clearly not the case in this instance. Mr Ashkenazi was invited to New Zealand by the United Israel Appeal to address an invitation-only meeting ... This was a fundraising event for a home for disadvantaged children in Israel. The message that Labour is sending out is that Israeli citizens aren't welcome in this country, whereas Foreign Minister Phil Goff is happy to strut the world stage holding hands with Yasser Arafat." Phil Goff defended the visa refusal, saying that "If the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army is not a high-level visit, then perhaps the member would like to explain to the House what it is." Goff also said he was "hopeful of progress being made towards the resolution of these issues so that this unfortunate matter can be put behind us." David Zwartz, president of the Jewish Council in New Zealand, told National Radio that the Jewish community often invited foreign speakers to fundraising events. "I think it's unfortunate that the Government is applying its guidelines on a matter of diplomatic difference between Israel and New Zealand in a way that punishes the New Zealand Jewish community," said Zwartz.