Karine A Affair - Aftermath

Aftermath

Israel and the United States alleged Hezbollah had some link to the Palestinian weapons ship seized by Israel. Three Hezbollah members arrested in Jordan were attempting to smuggle Katyusha rockets to the Palestinians (the detainees were later freed by the Jordanians at the request of the Lebanese government). Another fishing vessel carrying weapons to the Palestinians was sunk off the Lebanese coast by Israel in May 2002. Israel charged that the weapons and military cargo were purchased with the help of Hezbollah. Hezbollah rejected accusations of involvement in arms shipment. Israeli reports stated that the ship, purchased from Lebanon, had loaded weapons at the Iranian island of Kish in the middle of the night off the coast of Iran. It had then sailed through the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Red Sea.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat however, denied any involvement. While the IDF maintains that the weapons were bound for the PA, other sources have suggested that the weapons may instead have been headed to Lebanon for the use of the Islamic militant group Hezbollah. However, some academics, such as Matthew Levitt, Anthony Cordesman and Efraim Karsh have also supported the view that the ship was smuggling Iranian weapons to the Palestinian Authority.

The affair came amidst increasingly comprehensive cooperation between the U.S. and Iran in Afghanistan- opposed by some Israelis, neo-conservatives in the U.S., and hard-liners in Iran, who saw any rapprochement between Iran and the U.S. as a threat. According to Trita Parsi and Barbara Slavin, there are reasons to question the validity of the entire affair; the timing of the events suggest that it could have been staged by the Israelis or that rogue elements in Iran may have been behind it.

Israel subsequently arrested Fuad Shubaki—an Arafat aide who was in charge of finances in the PA and as such the mastermind behind the operation. He was charged with arms dealing and establishing connections with a foreign agent, for his role in financing the weapons ship. In 2006 Shubaki was taken into custody after an IDF raid on the Jericho prison where he was being held together with Ahmed Sa'adat—the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. They were held together with other assassins of the former tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi. Israel's prosecutor demanded that Shubaki must be sent to 25 years in prison, referring to the severity of his crimes. The court decided that Shubaki should be sentenced to a reduced sentence, keeping in mind his high age and health problems. Shubaki was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in jail.

After his arrest in 2006, Shubaki told the Israelis that the PA funded terror cells such as his. He estimated that between $7 and $10 million was used every two years to purchase arms for the Gaza Strip. Additionally another $2 million was spent on weapons for the West Bank. According to Shubaki the money came from both international aid to the PA, tax money Israel routinely transferred to the PA and taxes collected from the Gaza Strip. He also confessed to his relationship in the purchasing of weapons for the head of the Tanzim terror group in Gaza. The Tanzim group is known for their attacks against military installations and Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.

The smuggling attempt is in direct violation of all existing agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. These agreements clearly state the amount and type of weapons that the Palestinian Authority is permitted to possess.

In the aftermath, Tonga has suspended its international ship registry.