lennart
24-07-04, 16:39
Report: New Zealand citizen aided Israelis in passport affair
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
The New Zealand police is trying to track down a citizen suspected of involvement in the attempt by Israelis to fraudulently obtain passports, according to a report aired Friday on New Zealand television.
The man, Anthony David Reznik, was a paramedic working for an ambulance company which provided services to the handicapped youth under whose name the Israelis attempted to obtain a passport.
Israel Radio on Saturday quoted news reports as saying that Reznik left for Hong Kong a day after the two Israelis were arrested. His wife and children left the country a few days later.
According to the reports, Reznik, a lecturer at the Auckland Institute of Technology, told his students that he was travelling to assist a friend hurt in a traffic accident. He then told his employers he would not be able to return to New Zealand due to medical reasons.
The reports said Reznik was a religious Jew, a member of Auckland's Jewish council. Members of the Jewish community were quoted as saying that he planned return to live in Israel.
According to the report, Reznik had lived in Israel for 13 years and had served in the Israel Defense Forces.
New Zealand authorities have said ever since the affair was exposed that a fourth man was involved, other then the two Israelis who were handed jail sentences and the third man who managed to flee the country.
If Reznik was indeed involved in the affair, he may have served a part that the Mossad has been known to offer to Jews living outside Israel, and which usually does not put the person providing the assistance at high risk.
However, ever since Jonathan Pollard was arrested and jailed in the United States in 1985 for being an Israeli spy, the Mossad has minimized its contacts with Jews living outside the country.
Two Israelis, Elisha Cara and Uri Kelman, were convicted by a New Zealand court and sentenced to six months in jail for attempting to illegally obtain a New Zealand passport. The two have appealed the sentence.
Third man in NZ passport affair was Israeli diplomat
The Austrian Foreign Ministry on Thursday confirmed reports by media outlets in Australia and New Zealand that Ze'ev Barkan, the unaccounted-for third man in the New Zealand passport affair, served for a number of years as an Israeli diplomat in Vienna.
Barkan was attached to the Israeli diplomatic mission in Austria from 1996 through August, 2001, according to the reports. He also held diplomatic posts in Belgium.
Austria's confirmation strengthens the claim by the New Zealand government that the incident was part of an Israeli intelligence operation.
The Foreign Ministry has neither confirmed nor denied connections to Barkan. The ministry said it has never made a practice of divulging information on individuals in its foreign service.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/455390.html
Misschien wordt het tijd dat de Nederlandse overheid Joodse Nederlanders die in het IDF hebben gediend goed in de gaten te houden.
Overigens die Zev Barkan wordt ook verdacht van het omleggen van Australische toeristen in Thailand en Cambodja.
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
The New Zealand police is trying to track down a citizen suspected of involvement in the attempt by Israelis to fraudulently obtain passports, according to a report aired Friday on New Zealand television.
The man, Anthony David Reznik, was a paramedic working for an ambulance company which provided services to the handicapped youth under whose name the Israelis attempted to obtain a passport.
Israel Radio on Saturday quoted news reports as saying that Reznik left for Hong Kong a day after the two Israelis were arrested. His wife and children left the country a few days later.
According to the reports, Reznik, a lecturer at the Auckland Institute of Technology, told his students that he was travelling to assist a friend hurt in a traffic accident. He then told his employers he would not be able to return to New Zealand due to medical reasons.
The reports said Reznik was a religious Jew, a member of Auckland's Jewish council. Members of the Jewish community were quoted as saying that he planned return to live in Israel.
According to the report, Reznik had lived in Israel for 13 years and had served in the Israel Defense Forces.
New Zealand authorities have said ever since the affair was exposed that a fourth man was involved, other then the two Israelis who were handed jail sentences and the third man who managed to flee the country.
If Reznik was indeed involved in the affair, he may have served a part that the Mossad has been known to offer to Jews living outside Israel, and which usually does not put the person providing the assistance at high risk.
However, ever since Jonathan Pollard was arrested and jailed in the United States in 1985 for being an Israeli spy, the Mossad has minimized its contacts with Jews living outside the country.
Two Israelis, Elisha Cara and Uri Kelman, were convicted by a New Zealand court and sentenced to six months in jail for attempting to illegally obtain a New Zealand passport. The two have appealed the sentence.
Third man in NZ passport affair was Israeli diplomat
The Austrian Foreign Ministry on Thursday confirmed reports by media outlets in Australia and New Zealand that Ze'ev Barkan, the unaccounted-for third man in the New Zealand passport affair, served for a number of years as an Israeli diplomat in Vienna.
Barkan was attached to the Israeli diplomatic mission in Austria from 1996 through August, 2001, according to the reports. He also held diplomatic posts in Belgium.
Austria's confirmation strengthens the claim by the New Zealand government that the incident was part of an Israeli intelligence operation.
The Foreign Ministry has neither confirmed nor denied connections to Barkan. The ministry said it has never made a practice of divulging information on individuals in its foreign service.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/455390.html
Misschien wordt het tijd dat de Nederlandse overheid Joodse Nederlanders die in het IDF hebben gediend goed in de gaten te houden.
Overigens die Zev Barkan wordt ook verdacht van het omleggen van Australische toeristen in Thailand en Cambodja.