Come clean over Israeli suspicions - Goff

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Labour leader Phil Goff is calling on the Government to "come clean" about what it knows about suspicious activities of Israelis following the Christchurch earthquake.

The Southland Times said the Security Intelligence Service launched an investigation after concern the police national computer had been hacked into by a group of Israel forensic analysts who were helping identify bodies at the Christchurch morgue.

Three Israelis were among the 181 people who died when the earthquake destroyed most of Christchurch's central business district on February 22.

An SIS source says Ofer Benyamin Mizrahi, 23, was found to be carrying at least five passports and the SIS was also suspicious about why his three travelling companions left Christchurch 12 hours after the earthquake when their friend's body remained in the van they were travelling in.

Goff said all New Zealanders felt immensely sad when it was revealed Israelis were amongst those killed in the February tragedy.

"But now serious questions have emerged about the activities of at least one of the Israeli groups in New Zealand and there are questions that need to be answered."

That included why Mizrahi was found to have five passports, he said.

"The Government needs to come clean with New Zealanders to say exactly what they know about the activities of this group while they were in New Zealand and whether those activities were illicit.

"This is not something that should be withheld from New Zealanders, we deserve to know."

Green MP Keith Locke said the many "loose ends" warranted further investigation.

"The public needs to be updated on what police have found out. If there have been Israeli agents involved, then that does need to be disclosed.

"We can't have agents operating in our country and it all being covered up by the SIS or the police."

Police and SIS should release the files they have on the matter, he said, even if it was an edited version.

Locke said it seemed strange that the companions of Mizrahi left New Zealand so quickly after their friend died.

There were also questions about why there was high level contract between the Israeli and New Zealand Governments - Prime Minister John Key fielded four calls on the day of the earthquake from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The SIS began to have suspicions about the forensic analysts when it realised they could have accessed the national police computer database.

An SIS officer said it would take only moments for a USB drive to be inserted in a police computer terminal and for a program allowing remote backdoor access to be loaded.

"We carried out an urgent audit. If it had been done it would eventually have given the Israelis access to all of our intelligence."

However, the audit had not identified any suspicious files so far, but a wider SIS investigation was continuing.

Israeli Ambassador Shemi Tzur dismissed the claims as "science fiction".

He said he was "shocked and upset" that New Zealand's intelligence agencies would have such suspicions.

The three friends of Ofer Mizrahi, who was killed instantly when the van the four were in was crushed by falling concrete in the central city, had left New Zealand so hurriedly because they were shocked and crying and wanted to go home.

Tzur said he was aware that Mizrahi was found to be carrying more than one passport when identification checks were being made of the earthquake victims.

"I was handed a parcel of his effects and it did contain more than one passport" but dual citizenship was common in Israel because of difficulties over the use of Israeli passports in some other countries.

He said he had not been told anything about Mizrahi being found with five or six passports, and to suggest that he and his friends were anything other than young tourists made him upset.

- © Fairfax NZ News