Ireland Blocks EU Personal Data Transfers to Israel

The Irish government has objected to an the European Commission's initiative to allow the transfer of personal data of European citizens to Israel. The move comes after earlier this year Israeli intelligence operatives were blamed for carrying out an assassination plot using Irish forged passports.

The intervention was made by Irish Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern on behalf of the Irish government. The initiative proposed by the European Commission declared Israeli data protection laws sufficient to allow the country to receive and store personal data including bank details of European citizens.

"It may well be the case that Israel provides data protections which meet EU standards. But the minister believes the EU committee has to take very serious account of the forgery of EU passports – including Irish ones – by Israel in recent months. Personal data provided innocently to Israeli officials by Irish citizens was used in forging passports. Other EU countries, particularly the UK, had similar experiences and that is a matter of the gravest concern," a spokesperson for the Minister, told The Irish Times.

The incident the spokesperson refers to is the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas commander back in January. Al-Mabhouh was killed in a hotel in Dubai as part of an assassination plan carried out by eleven individuals, who are suspected of being Mossad operatives. Eight of the involved individuals entered Dubai using forged Irish passwords.

Had the Irish government not have objected to it by Tuesday, the declaration would have taken effect automatically. Under the new circumstances, the initiative has to be reviewed by a special data protection committee to which European governments can voice their concerns.

Following Al-Mabhouh's death the Dubai police said that it is almost 99% certain that Mossad, Israel's national intelligence agency, is behind the murder. The Irish government concluded that an Israeli official agency was responsible for its citizens' personal data being used to create forged passports and has already expelled an Israeli diplomat over the incident.

You can follow the editor on Twitter @lconstantin