There has been much media speculation about the possibility that Israel is carrying out espionage activities in New Zealand (see http://tinyurl.com/3tpvs5x)
Here is some useful background:
There were around 3,500 Israelis in NZ at the time, and no one knew how many of them were in Christchurch.
Immediately after the EQ, the Embassy issued a public directive to all Israeli citizens that if they were uninjured and had the means, they should leave Christchurch without delay.
Contrary to the report in the Press, the Israeli Ambassador to New Zealand is based in Wellington.
One of our members hosted the Israeli USAR team and we understood it to be sponsored by the two families who lost their sons together in the EQ.
The Israeli USAR team showed us videos of themselves working in Haiti and other disaster zones.
The third Israeli casualty, who died in the van and who allegedly had 5 passports in his possession was not the subject of the USAR team’s interest at all.
I spoke with a desperate parent for over an hour on an international toll call as we explored ways the Israeli USAR team could enter the Red Zone. If he was a Mossad agent trying it on, then he deserves an Academy Award. In the end, for a number of reasons, admission into the Red Zone was never granted.
Much is being read into Israelis leaving NZ hurriedly following the EQ. We were directly involved in the search for Israeli survivors in the aftermath of the EQ.
As part of that search we had to track down Israeli tourists who had been in Christchurch to see if they had sighted the ones we were looking for. Many were evacuated to the YWAM base in Oxford. Within days after the EQ nearly half of those Israelis had already left the country.
Furthermore, Christchurch has an international airport. Lots of tourists plan to end their holiday here and expect to depart NZ from here. The two Israelis Engel and Levy were only in Christchurch because they were expecting to leave NZ in the next few days. It was their last and unfortunately, final stop. So the fact that many had left the country so quickly is not unusual.
Rabbi Goldstein tells me that many of the EQ Israeli USAR team were also members of a USAR team that was out here and found Liat Okin’s body on the Routeburn Track back in 2008.
Many countries won’t allow entry to Israeli citizens but because of their cosmopolitan backgrounds they can be eligible for citizenship of more than one country so having multiple passports is not unusual.
—
Tony Kan,
President,
NZ Friends of Israel Association Inc
March 2011
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