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Be honest Mr Key

Wednesday, 20 July 2011, 1:11 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party

Maryan Street
Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs
20 July 2011

Be honest Mr Key

The Prime Minister should be straight up and tell New Zealanders whether or not Israeli operatives have breached this country’s security and sovereignty, Labour’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maryan Street says.

“The allegations over suspicious activities by Israelis during and immediately after the February earthquake in Christchurch are serious and deserve a response. If there has been any breach of this country’s security and sovereignty that John Key knows about, then he needs to tell us.

“Were these young people really just backpackers? Or had an innocent group of tourists been infiltrated by Mossad (Israeli secret service) ‘helpers’ whose mission it was to take Kiwi identities?

“If it was the latter, why hasn’t the Opposition been briefed through John Key’s SIS committee? What information is he withholding and why?

“One of them was carrying five passports. Were any of those New Zealand passports? We went through the same thing in 2004 when Mossad agents were convicted for passport fraud. That was a breach of our sovereignty and of international law at that time, and it would be again if that is what has happened here,” Maryan Street said.

“In 2005, when Phil Goff was Foreign Minister, Israel’s then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Silvan Shalom, told him: ‘Israel commits itself to taking steps to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents in the future’.

“John Key must now tell New Zealand if that commitment is still being honoured today.You wouldn’t expect a friendly country to take advantage of a restored diplomatic relationship in this way. If the Prime Minister has any information about the latest incident, the least he should have done is brief the Leader of the Opposition through the SIS committee.

“If he doesn’t have that information, then we are back to where we were in 2004 when Israel exploited the good relationship with New Zealand to commit passport fraud. That behaviour was internationally unacceptable and resulted in the cessation of diplomatic relations for a time,” said Maryan Street.

ENDS

 
 
 
 
 
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