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

Passport

A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....

 fraud

Fraud

In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...

 in Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

. The New Zealand government said there was strong evidence that the two men were Mossad

Mossad

The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....

 agents and Prime Minister Helen Clark

Helen Clark

Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ is a New Zealand political figure who was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008...

 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

Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...

 and international law

International law

Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...

."

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.

Trial and sentencing

The case was presided over by Judge Chris Field. Cara was represented 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

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 or American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. "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 cerebral 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 2005. Barkan was never found.

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

Cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy is an umbrella term encompassing a group of non-progressive, non-contagious motor conditions that cause physical disability in human development, chiefly in the various areas of body movement....

 charity

Charitable organization

A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...

 because they tried to collect a passport in the name of a wheelchair-using 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.

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

Silvan Shalom

' , born 4 October 1958) is an Israeli politician, member of the Knesset for Likud and the country's Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development. He previously served as the country's Foreign Minister and Finance Minister.-Biography:...

 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

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

 were subsequently vandalized with Swastika

Swastika

The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...

s and Nazi slogan

Slogan

A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...

s 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

Governor-General of New Zealand

The Governor-General of New Zealand is the representative of the monarch of New Zealand . The Governor-General acts as the Queen's vice-regal representative in New Zealand and is often viewed as the de facto head of state....

 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

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, 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

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

 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."
Australian Jewish News

Australian Jewish News

Australian Jewish News is a Jewish newspaper in Australia which has been continuously printed since 1895. The weekly publication has been, for the most recent years of its existence, the nation's only print news publication aimed specifically at a Jewish readership and, from the start, assumed the...

credited NZ MP Taito Phillip Field

Taito Phillip Field

Taito Phillip Hans Field is a Samoan New Zealand politician. He was a Member of Parliament for south Auckland electorates from 1993 to 2008. Field was a minister outside Cabinet in a Labour-led government from 2003 to 2005. Following charges of bribery and perverting the course of justice, he was...

, 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

Phil Goff

Philip Bruce Goff is the current Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party. During the Fifth Labour Government, he served in a number of ministerial portfolios, including Minister of Defence of New Zealand, Minister of Corrections, Minister of Foreign Affairs and...

 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

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

 in order to secure Clark's approval for the start of the Ankara

Ankara

Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....

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."