Eli and Uri go to Jail!

The Israelis caught trying to obtain a NZ passport by false pretences have been sent down for six months and ordered to pay a fine of $50,000 each to the Cerebal Palsy society (as they were manipulating a cerebal palsy victim into applying for a passport with the intent to take it for their own purposes). The sentence is light - the passport act of 1992 allows for sentences of up to ten years and $250,000 fines in such circumstances.

More heavy-handed is the Government's response. Since we don't have much to do with Israel and their ambassador is based in Oz, there's sod all that the government can do to make them really sorry. Hence the government is imposing measures that border on petulance (suspension of diplomatic relations etc)and, if I recall correctly, are worse than the measures imposed when France bombed the Rainbow Warrior. But at that time, France could (and was starting to) make trouble with New Zealand butter access to the EEC.