NZ suspends contacts with Israel

New Zealand has 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.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he regretted the New Zealand move and expressed hope that the row could soon be resolved.

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, or about 33,000 US dollars, to the Cerebral Palsy Society after they used the name of a disabled man in their bid to get a false passport.

Source: CRI