New Zealand investigates ‘suspicious’ Israeli spy activity [updated]

Ofer Mizrahi

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Authorities in New Zealand have confirmed that they investigated a series of suspicious actions by alleged Israeli intelligence operatives, in the days following last February’s earthquake in Christchurch. According to publicly available data, at least three of the 181 people who died in the February 22 earthquake were Israelis. Admittedly, the number of Israeli victims was relatively small, which is why New Zealand authorities were baffled by the Israeli government’s intense concern about the earthquake. On the day of the disaster, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the telephone no fewer than four times with his New Zealand counterpart, John Key, which some New Zealand officials found odd at the time. Even stranger was a subsequent encounter between an armed New Zealand security force and an unauthorized Israeli rescue squad, in the days following the earthquake. The Israeli squad was found roaming in Christchurch’s cordoned ‘red zone’, without an official rescue accreditation by either the United Nations or the New Zealand government. After a brief but tense exchange, the Israelis were escorted out of the ‘red zone’, and the episode led to “intense diplomatic exchanges” between Wellington and Tel Aviv, according to New Zealand media. A possible solution to the riddle came with the discovery in Christchurch of the dead body of an Israeli named Ofer Benyamin Mizrahi. Mizrahi, who died when part of a building fell on the van he was riding in, was found to be carrying at least five different passports bearing his photograph. Moreover, there were three other Israelis in the van with Mizrahi when he died. The three, Michal Fraidman, Liron Sade and Guy Jordan, managed to escape with their lives. But instead of contacting New Zealand authorities to report the death of Mizrahi, they hurriedly fled the country 12 hours later. Some observers now believe that the Israeli government’s intense interest in the Christchurch earthquake centered on extricating Mizrahi’s body and the potentially sensitive personal documents he was carrying, as well as those of two other Israelis who died during the disaster, Ofer Levy and Gabi Ingel. Questioned by journalists on Wednesday, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key refused to discuss the content of his telephone exchanges with Mr. Netanyahu on the day of the earthquake. He also refused to discuss the Mizrahi case or to say whether the Israeli government had done anything wrong, arguing that it would not be “in the national interest” for him to do so (update: the BBC reports that Key has denied that the Israeli group had ties to intelligence agencies). In a possibly related development, New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service is investigating claims that Israeli intelligence operatives have infiltrated the country’s national police computer system, by covertly installing surveillance software. Veteran New Zealand intelligence observer Nicky Hager told The Dominion Post that having access to the country’s police national computer system would be “like gold” to a foreign intelligence agency.