Britain Ousts PLO Official, Israeli Attache Over Spying

The British government today ordered the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat and a Palestinian official it named as a PLO guerrilla in connection with a secret Israeli spy operation and a PLO arms cache in Britain.

“The Israeli ambassador has been informed today that a member of his diplomatic staff must leave the country by the end of this month,” a government spokesman said.

“The Home Secretary is requiring the departure from Britain by the end of this month of a staff member currently serving in the Palestine Liberation Organization office in London,” he said.

In Jerusalem, Israel expressed regret over the expulsion of its diplomat and denied that it was acting against British interests.

“We regret that Her Majesty’s government has seen fit to take measures of the kind adopted,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Alon Liel said. “Israel did not act against any British interest.”

The Foreign Office named the Israeli as Arie Regev, an attache, and the Palestinian as Zaki Hawa, whom it said Britain has identified as a member of the PLO’s Force 17, an elite unit whose members guard PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.

The Foreign Office said Regev has been stationed in Britain since July, 1984. It said Hawa had a cover as a press officer at the PLO office.

Informed sources said Regev was a Mossad agent who “ran,” or supervised, Hawa in spying activities for Israel.

The expulsions were announced after details of an Israeli espionage operation were revealed in the London trial of Jordanian Ismael Sowan, who was convicted of arms possession.

Sowan was recruited by Mossad to spy against suspected PLO member Abder Mustapha, who police believe was connected with the murder last year of a London-based Arab cartoonist critical of the guerrilla group.

Sowan was sentenced to 11 years in prison Thursday for storing weapons, including explosives, rifles and hand grenades, for Mustapha, who has fled Britain.

Israeli Embassy officials confirmed to police that Sowan had told them last year he was keeping the cache for Mustapha, the prosecution said in court.

But Israel aroused Britain’s anger, and the expulsion, by not informing it about the arms.

Government sources said Israel’s failure to provide the information violated liaison arrangements between the countries’ secret services.

“This isn’t the first time that we have told the Israelis these sort of activities are incompatible with diplomatic status and will not be tolerated,” a British official told Reuters. “We have registered this at a high level.”

The official said that last summer Britain told the Israeli Embassy it would not accept the return to London of diplomat Jacob Barad, in Israel on leave, after he was linked to the Sowan case.