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Posted on March 2, 2010 by realistic bird Carton by Carlos Latuff
02/03/2010 A decision by Dubai on Sunday to ban Israelis is a serious blow to long-standing efforts aimed at building up relations with the Gulf region, an Israeli diplomatic source told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
After announcing the ban on Israelis with dual nationality, Dubai’s police chief, Lt.-Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, said on Monday that authorities in the Gulf emirate would be on the lookout for “Jews.”
A Channel 2 News broadcast Monday night showed Tamim pointing at his own face and saying, “We know how to recognize them.” The United Arab Emirates will “deny entry to anyone suspected of having Israeli citizenship,” he said, adding that Israelis with dual nationality would be denied entry.
“We will not allow those who hold Israeli passports into the UAE no matter what other passport they have,” Tamim said. Police will “develop skills” to recognize Israelis by “physical features and the way they speak,” he said.
“While Israelis are not supposed to go to Dubai,” he added, “this will affect businesspeople who travel there.”
Dubai has become a popular destination for Israeli business travelers with dual nationality who specialize in the fields of agriculture, trade and shipping, among other sectors.
Last month, Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer played in a Dubai tennis tournament, a year after the event’s organizers were fined $300,000 for denying her a visa to participate in the international tournament, citing security concerns.
Senior Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in his hotel room on January 19. Dubai Police says he was killed in a Mossad assassination involving at least 27 suspects who entered the emirate on a variety of passports.
Meanwhile, a team from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Passport Office would travel to Israel to conduct enquiries into passport offences following the murder of al-Mabhouh. “(We) don’t wish to prejudice the investigation by going into any more detail,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said. “Australia expects the Israeli government, its officials and its agencies, to cooperate fully with the Australian investigation.”
The Australian newspaper said police will interview three Australians living in Israel – Nicole McCabe, Adam Korman and Joshua Bruce – whose passports were among the 27 foreign travel documents used by the assassins.
Australia’s spy agency ASIO is also involved in the investigation, said a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She did not say whether ASIO officers were travelling to Israel.
Australia has condemned the misuse of its passports and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith called Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem late last month to discuss Canberra’s “gravest” concerns about the matter.
However, a former senior Israeli police officer told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that British and Australian police investigators in Israel have “zero chance” of making significant progress in their investigations into the alleged use of false passports in the killing of al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month.
Former National Fraud Unit investigator Dep.-Cmdr. (ret.) Boaz Guttman, who served on the police force for 21 years and who has worked with Interpol and police forces from Britain, spoke hours after Australia announced that it would send Federal Police agents to Israel this week to investigate the use of forged Australian passports in al-Mabhouh’s slaying.
Britain’s Serious and Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) has two officers in the Zionist entity already waiting to interview British Israelis who will arrive at the British Consulate in Tel Aviv in the coming days to collect new biometric passports.
“Without belittling their capabilities, all of this is a show put on for domestic consumption by Britain and Australia, to show that they are doing something,” Guttman said. “It is a waste of Australian and British taxpayers’ money,” he added.
“Dubai police does not have serious evidence that can be presented to a court [linking Israel to Mabhouh’s death],” Guttman continued.
“If Britain and Australia are sending a few officers to Israel, it shows that this is not a serious investigation. I can’t see how they will make any progress,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Dubai Police believe at least two suspected Mossad agents travelled to the US using a British and an Irish passport.
“All of them [are in Israel]… These are agents for the Mossad, we know this,” Dubai Police chief Lt.-Gen. Tamim said, according to the London Times. “They travelled to European countries and to the US using the same documents they used to enter here,” he added.
Also on Monday, Dubai Police revised its list of suspected assassins once again, adding a 27th suspect, though it did not name the latest addition.
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