NEWS.com.au | NZ cuts ties with Israel over spies (July 16, 2004)

NEW Zealand has cut diplomatic ties with Israel after two alleged Israeli spies - including one who had lived in Sydney for several years - were jailed last night for trying to obtain a false Kiwi passport.

A furious Prime Minister Helen Clark banned Israeli President Moshe Katsov from entering New Zealand, accusing Israel of an "utterly unacceptable breach of New Zealand sovereignty and international law".

"We regard this as an unfriendly action by agents of the Government of Israel," Miss Clark said.

The Israeli rebuke is New Zealand's toughest diplomatic stance since it broke official relations with France over the 1985 Rainbow Warrior bombing, when two French secret agents were convicted of manslaughter for blowing up the Greenpeace ship in Auckland harbour.

Ms Clark immediately suspended all high-level visits to and from Israel and abandoned plans for Foreign Ministry talks with Israel later this year.

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