Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to have abandoned an attempt to block Hamas and Islamic Jihad finances for a family trip to China.

An affidavit filed in a U.S. federal district court alleged that Netanyahu withdrew Israel’s support for a suit against a financier to Palestinian insurgency groups in exchange for a tour of China in May 2013.

The suit by the family of Daniel Wultz said Netanyahu brought “75 of his closest friends and family” to Beijing after he blocked a former intelligence official, Uzi Shaya, from testifying against the state-owned Bank of China.

“Mr. Shaya told me that Prime Minister Netanyahu had wanted to visit China for a long time but was not invited to do so,” Sheryl Cantor Wultz said in an affidavit to the federal district court in Washington D.C. on Dec. 17. “Now he had been invited by high-level Chinese government officials for a special visit and was encouraged to bring 75 of his closest friends and family, who were treated like royalty. The trip was conditioned on Mr. Shaya not testifying.”

In November, Netanyahu announced that Israel was withdrawing from the suit against Bank of China by the families of Hamas and Jihad victims. The prime minister, who on Dec. 18 met visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, cited what he termed national security concerns.

“My visit to China and your visit here today in Jerusalem express the
determination of our two governments to form even stronger friendships
between our two countries and much stronger cooperation,” Netanyahu told
Wang.

But Ms. Wultz, a cousin of House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor,
asserted that Netanyahu aides did not deny that the prime minister caved
in to pressure by Beijing. She cited a conversation with then-Israeli
National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror in June 2013.

“While we are respectful of China’s interests, and of the diplomatic
pressure to which Israel has been subjected, those interests and that
pressure cannot be permitted to obstruct the ability of American courts to
hear critical evidence,” David Boies, the lead Wultz family lawyer, said.

The affidavit said Israel’s government and Mossad espionage agency
encouraged Wultz and other families to sue Bank of China. Netanyahu was said
to have assured the families as late as April 2012 that Shaya would be
allowed to testify in the suit, which sought hundreds of millions of dollars
from China’s fourth largest lender.

“The complaint was filed only after the GOI [government of Israel]
repeatedly assured my attorneys that it would provide cooperation and
support for our allegations,” Daniel’s father, Yekutiel Wultz, said in the
affidavit. “The GOI also identified and voluntarily designated Uzi Shaya as
the witness.”

  Bank of China, Court document: Netanyahu swapped tour of China for testimony on terror-financing, Daniel Wultz, Mossad, Sheryl Cantor Wultz, Uzi Shaya, Wang Yi