The Israeli Ambassador to Ireland, Dr Zion Evrony, has declined a request to attend a meeting of an Oireachtas committee to discuss the use of forged Irish passports by a team allegedly responsible for the assassination of a senior Hamas operative.
Chairman for the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee, Dr Michael Woods, said that the members were "most disappointed" by the ambassador's decision not to attend the meeting.
The committee had asked Dr Evrony to attend the committee meeting to discuss the use of forged Irish passports in connection with the assassination of a senior Hamas official in Dubai in January. It is widely held that the killing was carried out by Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.
"The Committee is most disappointed by Dr Evrony's response," Dr Woods said in a statement, adding that the members of the committee are very concerned by the fraudulent use of Irish passports "in any circumstances".
"We were keen to ask Dr Evrony about this alleged involvement of Israeli secret services in the killing. In his reply, Dr Evrony stated that "as I cannot shed any light on the issue in question, I regret that I will not be able to participate in the meeting," Dr Woods said.
"We had hoped that the Ambassador would be in a position to try to establish some of the facts regarding the issue considering he is the permanent representative of the Israeli government in Ireland. However, unfortunately this does not seem to have been the case."
Dr Woods said that "urgent answers" were needed to establish who was behind the use of the fake Irish passports. He added that the committee will be contacting the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheal Martin to find out if he has "been any more successful in garnering information".
Meanwhile, at a meeting held today, the committee assented to a request made by the Israeli Ambassador to meet with Dr Alan Dershowitz from Harvard Law School. The Israeli embassy suggested Dr Dershowitz as an appropriate witness to give the Israeli perspective regarding the military campaign in Gaza and the subsequent Goldstone Report. The Committee was happy to agree to this and it is keen to give all sides of the conflict on opportunity to offer their viewpoints.
Ruth Zakh, a counsellor for the Isreali Embassy in Dublin, said that Dr Evrony had "respectfully declined" the invitation as he had no information on the matter.
"Dr Evrony has nothing to contribute on the matter therefore it would be of no use for him to attend the meeting therefore we had to respectfully decline the invitation," she said.