Attack on Jewish Cemetery in Nz Linked to Passport Plot

A Jewish cemetery has been desecrated in Wellington, New Zealand's capital, in an attack linked by community leaders to the backlash from a false passport plot involving suspected Mossad agents.

Fourteen graves had their headstones knocked over, while three swastikas and the words sieg heil were carved into the turf and footpath nearby.

The desecration is believed to be the first such attack in New Zealand, which has a small Jewish community of fewer than 10,000 people in a population of 4 million.

It came within hours of the suspension of diplomatic relations between New Zealand and Israel, after two alleged Mossad agents were jailed for their involvement in attempts to obtain a fraudulent passport in the name of a tetraplegic Auckland man.

Helen Clark, the prime minister, suggested yesterday that the passport, believed to have been intended for the fugitive suspected Mossad agent Zev Barkan, might have been used in a covert assassination plot.

Silvan Shalom, Israel's foreign minister, has expressed regret for the plot, but Ms Clark said a direct government-to-government apology and an acknowledgement that the jailed men were Mossad agents was needed. Analysts believe that is unlikely while the men are in jail as such an admission might endanger their lives.

Ms Clark told New Zealand national radio that an apology had been sought three months ago. She had earlier condemned the scandal as a "sorry indictment" of Israel.

David Zwartz, the president of New Zealand's Jewish Council, said the attacks had taken place in a climate of "government-sanctioned anti-Israelism" after the trial.

"The strength with which she made that allegation and the strength of her comments about Israel led directly to what happened, to my mind," he said.

"It's cause and effect: it's like giving a green light to people who might want to do this sort of thing."

He visited the cemetery yesterday and was shocked: "It gave me a sick feeling ... because this sort of thing has never happened in New Zealand and because it reminded me of the other shattered cemeteries I've seen in Europe."