The British government has kicked a worker at the Israeli embassy in London out of the country to protest Israel’s alleged involvement in the January 20 assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told reporters Tuesday that although there is no proof that the Israeli government was responsible for the murder, the government in London believes that Israelis copied passports of British citizens and used them to sneak secret agents into Dubai to kill Mabhouh.
“We have concluded that there are compelling reasons to believe that Israel was responsible for the misuse of the British passports,” Miliband said.
The killing
Mahmoud al-Mahbhouh was a senior member of Hamas. In 1989, when Mahbhouh was 29 years old, he murdered two Israeli soldiers, Avi Sasportas and Ilan Sa’adon. In recent years, he was responsible for getting arms for Hamas and for developing his organization’s ties to Iran. Many of the Qassam and Grad rockets that Hamas has fired at Israeli civilians in the western Negev region were probably obtained by Mahbhouh.
On January 19, Mahbhouh visited Dubai to meet with Iranian counterparts and possibly to purchase more arms. But before his meetings could take place, his body was discovered in his hotel room. Dubai police have accused Israel of the assassination, but Israeli officials have neither confirmed or denied that charge.
Israel responds
In response to the expulsion (David Miliband did not give out the name of the embassy worker that was asked to leave the country, but several newspapers reported that the individual was a Mossad worker in Great Britain), Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he was upset but he stressed that Israel’s relationship with Great Britain is a strong and important one.
“Our relationship with Britain is extremely important, we cooperate on various sensitive issues, and we regret the British decision,” Liberman said.
