A photo of the "Mossad agent"

An Israeli couple who came to the city on March 3, 2010, will be deported for “suspicious activities”. Shneor Zalman and Yaffa Shenoi came on a multiple-entry visa and rented a house on Rose Street, Fort Kochi, for Rs 50,000 per month, far higher than the market rate.

“Central intelligence got an alert about a covert operation being carried out by suspected Israeli agents after the 26/11 terror attacks in which south Mumbai’s Chabad House came under attack and six Jews, including a Rabbi and his pregnant wife, were killed. A communication was sent to all states and it was our wing in Kerala that traced this couple at Fort Kochi,” an intelligence officer here said.

Indian agencies will question two suspected Israeli agents before they are deported. “We have traced the couple’s financial transactions. Preliminary investigations suggest similar Israelis are camping in various parts of the country,” an official said.

Duo were under lens

In their report, the state intelligence department said a group of people turned up at the couple’s rented house regularly and held meetings.

“These meetings lasted for hours in the night. They were under close surveillance”.

The deportation order was slapped on Zalman and Shenoi last Monday after undercover Kerala Police officers tracked them for a year, questioned them and filed a report to Ernakulam collector P I Sheik Pareeth.

Shneor Zalman, born on September 2, 1984, and Yaffa Shenoi, born on January 27, 1988, entered the country on multiple-entry visas (one of them being AP 2569691). While Zalman’s passport number is 13143659, Shenoi’s is 11665711.

Fort Kochi is a major hub for foreign tourists next to the neighbourhood of Mattancherry, famous for its Jew Town. This is the historical part of town where Jews set up their first trading outpost centuries ago and built the country’s oldest synagogue in 1568.

“A monthly rent of Rs 50,000 is disproportionately high, even in Fort Kochi. This is one of the main factors that made us suspicious,” the intelligence source said. “They have been in the country from March 3, 2010. When their visas expired on March 3 last year, they went out and returned on April 1, 2011 on a new visa.”

When I first read this, I thought it was a sick joke. The Chabad movement has a lot of money and the willingness to spend it to help bring Jews back in the fold. Meetings lasting in to the night would more likely be shiurim or Torah learning sessions. Nothing here smacks of Mossad.

This is of course what Rabbi Shneor Zalman claims. 

Rabbi Shneor Zalman and Yaffa Sheina Bernstein said they were stunned by a story run by the Times of India in which unnamed Indian security officials said they were secret Israeli agents that would soon be deported from the country.

“I was invited here by the Jewish community of Kochi with the full knowledge of local authorities,” said Zalman, a 27-year-old rabbi from Jerusalem. “I have no idea how they got the impression I was part of a Mossad operation.”

He said he and Yaffa Sheina ran an outreach center catering to Jewish travelers in the popular tourist destination as well as to the city’s remaining 50 Jews, part of a once much larger community whose origins date back to the 16th century. Zalman insisted their sole motivation for being in the country was to provide religious services to local members of the Jewish community and had nothing to do with Israel.

 Meanwhile, I received this further information via email:

This relates to a deportation order issued by the District Collector, Ernakulam to Zalman and Shendi Bernstein, who have been living in Cochin, India for the past year and serving as Rabbi at the Cochin Synagogue in Mattancherry. Apparently, the District Collector – the topmost government official in the district – was acting on the report filed by The Foreigners Registration Officer and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Administration & Crimes), Kochi City. The reason cited for the deportation is that they had organized religious activities related to the “Religious Life & belief” at a Synagogue in Mattancherry. The order goes on to state that since there is no special endorsement in their entry visas to do such activities in India, the Foreigners Registration Officer etc.etc. cited above has recommended issuance of a “Quit India” order.

For the uninitiated, the couple in question were granted visas specifically on the request of the tiny Jewish community in Cochin since they have found it had to organize religious services on their own due to the drastic fall in numbers (The entire Jewish community in Kerala now number not more than 20!) The letter requesting the issue of visa to the couple and addressed to the Indian Ambassador in Israel and issued by the Trustees of the Synagogue in Cochin had specifically cited the inability of the community to continue with their religious life here due to the sorry state of their numbers and consequently, the couple were granted visas on two successive years on the same grounds.

While the official account of the events remains thus, there are quite a few “leaks” given to news outlets which paint something entirely different. Malayala Manorama Daily (Kochi Edition), one of the largest selling newspapers in Malayalam – the vernacular language, on the 8th of February 2012 carried a report, which while sticking to the official version, stated in the penultimate and final paragraphs (a rough translation of the same would read as) follows :-

“They have been accused of indulging in witchcraft at their homestay in Fort Nagar, where they used to reside previously.

However, the police refused to confirm the complaints to such effect.”

On 9th February 2012, the same newspaper cited above carried the news of a press release by Mohammed Rejib, State Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) – a Salafist Party whose leadership has been accused of terrorist
links in the past and whose current Chairman is currently in a Bangalore Jail facing charges of terrorism. In the press release he asked for a “comprehensive enquiry into the activities” of the couple.

At the same time the reports coming out in other news outlets were even more fantastic.”The Hindu” – a nationwide daily in India – carried the following report:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/article2872561.ece

A small website reported the same story as thus:
http://indiawires.com/7605/news/national/kerala-suspected-spy-couple-from-israel-to-be-deported/

While all this may be attributed to the press running wild with it’s imagination, the sad fact is that Zalman Bernstein and his wife have been ordered out of the country for organizing religious services, the original purpose for which the Synagogue sent him an invitation in the first place. The irony is even more palpable when you come to note that couple were charged with the “crime”, a “trial” was held and a “verdict” was handed out, all without any notice ever being served on the them. Furthermore, the sad fact remains that neither the Synagogue, where the high crime of holding a religious service was
committed, nor it’s office bearers, were not notified of such charges, at any point in time.

The only recourse open to the couple is to file an application before the Collector who has issued the order (The Collector is currently on a personal visit to the US and is not expected to be back for another 5 days. In the meanwhile, his official charge has been handed over to a deputy who is unlikely to take any action in this regard, the bureaucracy in India being what it is. If you happen to be a journalist in the vicinity of Chicago, it would be point of interest to note that the person in question is due to visit a certain facility there as reported in the Deccan Chronicle newspaper
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/kochi/collector-study-us-waste-treatment-tech-626)

The only other option open to the couple – the filing of a Writ of Mandamus in the High Court of the State – is a stiff challenge, since the couple being foreigners will have a tough time proving that they are eligible for the right of due process, open to the citizens of India.

I request you to forward this to your friends/relatives/colleagues so as to generate as much interest as can be done, so that this story will be picked up by the media and the facts of the matter can be brought to light; so that not only the couple, but the entire Jewish community of Cochin can be cleared of the asinine charges levelled against them.

Please help spread the word.

India and Pakistan could be in for monkey diplomacy after an unsuspecting primate strayed across the border into Pakistan to be snapped up by soldiers and packed off to a British-era zoo.

The monkey, who has not been given a name by his Pakistani handlers, was apparently found ambling around the desert region of Rahim Yar Khan on November 19.

Paramilitary troops manning a border post spotted the animal and sent him to Bahawalpur zoo in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The case may be open and shut for the zoo, but his status is attracting a flurry of media attention.

“We were given him by the Rangers. They found him strolling near their post,” the zoo’s curator Irfan Farooqi told AFP by telephone.

He added: “We don’t suspect the monkey has been deliberately sent to Pakistan. I don’t think it is a trained spy. It is a common monkey.”

Oh no, this is no common monkey. He is a trained spy: agent Bubbles, one of our finest Mossad monkeys.

Because we are not just the sons of monkeys and pigs. We also train them.

India’s TV have come out with this report on baby Moshe, who lost his parents during the siege at Nariman House but miraculously escaped, thanks to the efforts of his Indian nanny.

Plot:

HIL, Hero Hitler In Love revolves around Hitler Babbu Maan who lives in his village Ishqpura. Hitler is a man with unique and different thoughts who loves his fellow villagers and helps them unite their soul mates. Hitler falls in love with Sahiban Mouni Roy, who lives in Pakistan and decides to bring her to his village. Hitler believes in solving the problems by taking about them but when something crosses the line, he decides to become Real “Adolf Hitler”.

The film also revolves around car racing and Hitler who loves car racing, but when he is set up to fail in the Asian Car Racing competition he decides to take revenge, the story shapes how hitler takes his revenge and fights to win his girl and reunite both the nations (India and Pakistan).

Official site here.

Looks and sounds more painful than this.

They are called the Warriors of Goja, but perhaps a better name would be Warriors of Gonad.

Remember folks, it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye (hat tip: Shy Guy).

He looks like he just marched out of a graveyard, not towards one.

(hat tip for the photo and the post title: Snapped Shot)

In this photo taken Tuesday, July 19, 2011, a leopard attacks a forest guard at Prakash Nagar village near Salugara, on the outskirts of Siliguri, India. The leopard strayed into the village area and mauled several villagers, including three guards, before being caught by forest officials, according to news reports. The leopard, which suffered injuries caused by knives and batons, died later in the evening at a veterinary center. The forest guard being attacked was injured. (AP Photo)

[Source]

Quick! Somebody call UNRWA.

Gujarat is all set to have a ‘cow farm’ if the Israeli company planning to set it up in the State gets the neccessary clearances from the Union Government.

The Israeli company which has been leased 143 hectares of land for the farm by the State government for a period of 30 years, is waiting for clearances from the Government of India, Israeli Consul General Orna Sagiv told PTI over phone.

She was in the city for the inauguration of an Israeli film festival organised by the Vadodara chapter of the Friends of Israel Society.

In the first of the two-phased project, nearly 4,000 cows are to be imported from Israel for setting up a state-of-the-art dairy plant on 43 hectares of land at Ambasan village in Mehsana district, Sagiv said.

Israeli cows are known for higher milk yield. Sagiv further said that several Israeli companies were interested in investing in Gujarat adding her country was also willing to provide expertise to local civic bodies in helping resolve urban issues.