Israel facing European backlash over policies

Irish town snubs Israel envoy in protest, Spanish children write damning letters to embassy.

LONDON - An Irish town council has removed a page in its guestbook signed by the Israeli ambassador after the alleged use of fake Irish passports by Mossad agents to murder a Hamas official in Dubai, the BBC reported Tuesday.

The assassination is widely blamed on Israel's notorious intelligence service Mossad.

Authorities in Carrickmacross, northeast Ireland, voted to remove Zion Evrony's signature to protest Israel's diplomatic record, said the broadcaster.

"I think if a government is responsible for a wholesale disregard for international law then local authorities, as well as our own government, have a responsibility to tell them we expect a higher standard," said local councilor Matt Carthy.

The move drew criticism from Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin, who said envoys should be treated with "civility and respect."

The decision to get rid of Evrony's signature came after the alleged use of six false Irish passports in the assassination of a Hamas chief in Dubai last month.

Mahmud al-Mabhuh, a founder of the military wing of the democratically elected Palestinian movement Hamas, was found dead in his hotel room on January 20 after being drugged and suffocated, according to police.

As well as the Irish documents, 12 British, four French, three Australian and one German passports were used by 26 named suspects in the hit, according to Dubai police.

Israel has sought to play down the row, saying there is no hard proof of its involvement.

Martin said he understood the "deep concerns" that people in Ireland harbored about some of Israel's policies, but added removing the signature went against the principles governing treatment of foreign diplomats.

"It is a basic principle of relations between states that we treat each other's diplomatic representatives with civility and respect, regardless of any policy differences," he told the BBC.

Israeli officials have refused to confirm or deny reports that its spies were behind the hit, but the country's media see the killing as Mossad's work and the investigation has caused a diplomatic headache for Tel Aviv.

Ireland and other European states whose passports were allegedly faked and used in the hit have called in Israeli envoys to voice their concerns about the affair.

Meanwhile, Israel protested to Spain's ambassador on Sunday about a flood of anti-Israeli letters sent by Spanish primary school children, an Israeli foreign ministry official said.

Naor Gilon, a foreign ministry deputy director general, telephoned the Spanish ambassador, Alvaro Iranzo, to protest at hundreds of letters sent to the Israeli embassy in Madrid by children aged between five and 10, he said.

"In these letters, the children ask our ambassador for example, 'How may Palestinian children have you killed today?', the official said.

"Spain's ambassador replied the Spanish education ministry has nothing to do with the sending of childrens' letters," he said, stressing however that the initiative was within the scope of the public school system in Spain.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37576.