Jonathan Pollard
Photo: AP
Pollard's wife, Esther
Photo: AP
Pollard to PM: Your silence costing me my life
Israeli spy, jailed in US for nearly 21 years for espionage, writes letter to Olmert claiming him personally responsible for much of his suffering in past two decades. Pollard's wife, Esther, describes to Ynet her husband's shame when Olmert didn't mention his name in list of captives during Knesset speech
Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli spy jailed in the US for some 21 years, passed on a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in which he criticized the fact that his name did not appear on the list of missing and captives that Olmert read this week in his opening speech of the Knesset's winter session.
In the letter, Pollard asked Olmert to cease what he called his disrespectful policy of abandonment. He quipped that Olmert's silence is costing him his life.
Thursday morning, Pollard's wife, Esther, said to Ynet that her husband painfully described to her in a telephone conversation Tuesday night the ridicule he received from the inmates in jail with him after he wasn't mentioned in the prime minister's speech.
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Tuesday, the Israeli Consul Rida Mantzur, responsible for taking care of Jonathan Pollard, visited him. During the visit he asked her to pass on the letter he had written to the prime minister in which he leveled piercing criticism at Olmert, claiming that throughout the years, even when Olmert was a member of the Eban Commission charged with investigating the Pollard affair, he didn't go to any great lengths to help him.
During the time in which Olmert was a member of the Eban Commission, a report was published saying that the cooperation and aid the State of Israel gave the United States in the legal proceedings against Pollard were mistaken. The fact that Israel returned the documents regarding Pollard to the Americans was a mistake that caused serious damage, it was noted in the report: "These documents provided the foundation for the life sentence handed down to him."
In his letter to Olmert, Pollard added that, as an important member of the commission, Olmert had direct access to all the information and could have done a lot from the very beginning to help him. Pollard noted that since Olmert was elected prime minister, he has behaved as if Pollard doesn't exist, and this includes his speech asserting that Israel must continue to act for the speedy and safe return of the Israeli captives. However, Olmert, as was mentioned, didn't count Pollard in the list of said captives.
Next month Olmert is expected to visit Washington just as Pollard will mark 21 years in jail. Olmert wrote that it is no secret that Olmert is personally responsible to change Pollard's situation. Pollard pointed out that what Olmert did and didn't do played a central role in the injustice befallen Pollard for more than two decades.
One of Pollard's associates said that Pollard isn't naïve. For the first time, said his friend, Pollard is sensing that he has been erased.
