A British Jew whose father lived in pre-1948 Palestine used his genuine passport in the January assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai and is hiding in Europe, the London Independent reported Monday.
The Independent’s journalist Robert Fiske wrote that documents that were obtained reveal that the man was born in 1948, the year of the re-establishment of the State of Israel, and that his father lived in pre-1948 Palestine and then moved to Britain.
It added that Dubai police have handed over to Interpol police the man’s name and passport number.
Unlike the other passports that were false and allegedly used by some members of the assassination ring of nearly three dozen people, the latest suspect used his own passport, dated October 24, 2007 and valid until 2018.
Dubai sources were quoted as saying that he was photographed parking a rented car near the hotel where Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Mabhouh was killed in his luxurious room.
The report, if true, will be a trial by fire for Foreign Secretary William Hague, who was appointed only a few days ago following the British election last week and will find himself facing a political crisis over this MIddle East issue. In the previous government, Britain ordered an unidentified Israeli diplomat out of the country as a response to “compelling reasons” that Israel was behind the assassination and the cloning of British and other passports. Recently, it did not allow a Mossad representative to enter the country.