Canada: 9 Israeli "Art Students" Face Deportation as Spies

burek

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Feb 19, 2002
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Ottawa Sun
September 19, 2003

Nine Israelis face deportation
Spy agency suspects they may be foreign agents


By JOHN STEINBACHS and ANDREW SEYMOUR
Ottawa Sun

NINE Israeli nationals -- who[m] CSIS suspects are possible foreign agents -- were arrested by Immigration and Ottawa police tactical officers last Friday, blocks from Parliament Hill.

The nine have all been charged by Immigration for working in Canada illegally. All are in their 20s and were apparently selling art in Ottawa. The arrests follow similar takedowns of Israelis in Toronto and Calgary over the past few weeks.

An Ottawa police source said police were told members of the group were possible agents from Mossad, Israel's spy agency, but given no further information by CSIS.

CSIS declined to comment yesterday.


All nine have since been released and are staying in several rooms at a Lisgar St. apartment-hotel.

Citizenship and Immigration spokesman Rejean Cantlon confirmed that nine Israelis were arrested last Friday for working in Canada without a permit. Immigration hearings were held Wednesday and nine exclusion orders were issued.

No weapons

Ienav Sofer, Amit Yedudai, Rani Rahuhim Katsov, Roy Laniado, Shulamit Gorelik and Anatoly Belnik received exclusion orders for two years for working without authorization and misrepresentation. Koby Cole, Sharon Moskovitz and Yafit Avram were issued exclusion orders for one year.

All will be deported as soon as paperwork is ready, likely within the next few weeks, Cantlon said.

They were arrested with the help of tactical and patrol officers Friday between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.

No weapons were found in their rooms.

Yesterday, eight were found walking down Lisgar St., but offered no comment when asked if they were Israeli art students.

This is not the first time students selling art in Ottawa have caused concern with law enforcement. In 2001, Centrepointe residents complained of foreign students selling paintings in their neighourhood that turned out to be fakes.

"We're outraged"

The story of Israeli art students peddling paintings in foreign countries has been reported in the media and on the Internet in the past.

U.S. reports have alleged that groups of students had been trying to sell art in federal government buildings, prompting concerns about intelligence gathering, but no proof has ever been found linking the art peddlers with espionage.

"I keep seeing these things and looking into them, I really don't know how credible they are," said former CSIS chief of strategic planning David Harris. "Certainly it would be extremely surprising if such an outfit would repeat a (technique) in that sort of way."

Israeli Embassy spokesman Ben Forer said the matter is being treated very seriously.

"These are illegal workers ... we're outraged by this," he said. "We expect Israeli citizens that would like to work in Canada to equip themselves with the appropriate work permits before they come to Canada."

Forer laughed when asked if the arrests had anything to do with terrorism or if the nine are agents of Mossad -- whose operatives have been known in the past to favour using bogus Canadian passports.

"We don't know full details about what the paintings were but it was a completely commercial matter," Forer said.

Posting Note: This article was pulled by the Ottawa Sun for unknown reasons within hours of posting. It is reprinted here for fair use purposes. © 2003, Canoe Limited Partnership. All rights reserved.

Hmmm, wonder why they pulled it?
 

digitalsm

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Jul 11, 2003
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Canada is funny.

They will let in arabs without any paperwork, never do any checks on them, never do squat, but they will bust Israelis peddling art, for working without a permit.
 

LilBlinbBlahIce

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Dec 31, 2001
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The Israelis spy on us and we are thier b!tches and would dl anything for them. They have no scruples. If these were Arabs and had they tried to "peddle art" in the US, as these Israelis have in the past, they would be sitting in Gitmo.
 

digitalsm

Diamond Member
Jul 11, 2003
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Originally posted by: LilBlinbBlahIce
The Israelis spy on us and we are thier b!tches and would dl anything for them. They have no scruples. If these were Arabs and had they tried to "peddle art" in the US, as these Israelis have in the past, they would be sitting in Gitmo.

Show me one shred of proof that these Israelis were spying? And one we are talking about Canada, not the US. Canada has an open door policy, anyone can get in. Its absurd that they claim these people were spying without evidence of said spying. While they go after them, there are several thousand arabs with no back ground checks, no paper work, no nothing roaming around Canada and likely entering the US.
 

Czar

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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if I remember correctly then a little over a 100 Israeli "art students" were deported from the US couple of years ago for the very same reason.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
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Originally posted by: digitalsm
Canada is funny.

They will let in arabs without any paperwork, never do any checks on them, never do squat, but they will bust Israelis peddling art, for working without a permit.

yup, land of fairness:p
 

Siwy

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Sep 13, 2002
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Originally posted by: digitalsm
Canada is funny.

They will let in arabs without any paperwork, never do any checks on them, never do squat, but they will bust Israelis peddling art, for working without a permit.

Why does this have to be turned into Arabs vs. Jews? I live in Canada and I've heard of many deportation cases, I even knew personally people that were deported and they weren't Jews...so what?
 

kaizersose

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May 15, 2003
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Originally posted by: Siwy
Originally posted by: digitalsm
Canada is funny.

They will let in arabs without any paperwork, never do any checks on them, never do squat, but they will bust Israelis peddling art, for working without a permit.

Why does this have to be turned into Arabs vs. Jews? I live in Canada and I've heard of many deportation cases, I even knew personally people that were deported and they weren't Jews...so what?

it's not arabs vs. jews, its canada vs. themselves. canada lets anyone into their country including many terrorists which have been arrested in the US. now they are suddenly concerned that people are spying on them? inconsistent at best.
 

Siwy

Senior member
Sep 13, 2002
556
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Originally posted by: kaizersose
Originally posted by: Siwy
Originally posted by: digitalsm
Canada is funny.

They will let in arabs without any paperwork, never do any checks on them, never do squat, but they will bust Israelis peddling art, for working without a permit.

Why does this have to be turned into Arabs vs. Jews? I live in Canada and I've heard of many deportation cases, I even knew personally people that were deported and they weren't Jews...so what?

it's not arabs vs. jews, its canada vs. themselves. canada lets anyone into their country including many terrorists which have been arrested in the US. now they are suddenly concerned that people are spying on them? inconsistent at best.

HaHa! But didn't US let them in as well? How ironic. Anyway, are you actually apprehensive about Canada cracking down on spies?
 

LilBlinbBlahIce

Golden Member
Dec 31, 2001
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Originally posted by: digitalsm
Originally posted by: LilBlinbBlahIce
The Israelis spy on us and we are thier b!tches and would dl anything for them. They have no scruples. If these were Arabs and had they tried to "peddle art" in the US, as these Israelis have in the past, they would be sitting in Gitmo.

Show me one shred of proof that these Israelis were spying? And one we are talking about Canada, not the US. Canada has an open door policy, anyone can get in. Its absurd that they claim these people were spying without evidence of said spying. While they go after them, there are several thousand arabs with no back ground checks, no paper work, no nothing roaming around Canada and likely entering the US.

Israel has been busted spying on us many times, remember Jonathan Pollard? Don't know who he is? Do a Google search. They have no problem biting the hand that feeds them and we have no problem getting bit.
 

NesuD

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,999
106
106
Originally posted by: Czar
if I remember correctly then a little over a 100 Israeli "art students" were deported from the US couple of years ago for the very same reason.

Never heard of that. Link it if your going to post it.